The Beat of Love
by Unknown Pain
Summary: His movements were maybe the best of all of them. It was… amazing! His body moved to the beat without any problems. His great muscles were clearly visible and his t-shirt damped because of his sweat; my cheeks started to feel hot and slowly, my heart started to speed up. Maybe this music camp isn't so bad after all… NxM
1. Camp Ogakku

**Written by –** Unknown Pain.

**Disclaimer –** No. Just… no.

**The Beat of Love **

"_Music is my soul, my life, I can't live without it. Without music, life would be a mistake."  
_

-Unknown Pain-

* * *

**-Chapter I – Camp Ogakku-**

The warm summer wind blew through my long, auburn hair, touching my skin.

It was summer: finally no homework, no idiotic, annoying teachers that always yelled at you. No complains from your parents like, "Mikan, are you awake? You have to go school!" or "Mikan, have you finished your homework yet?" I could finally sleep in, and the best of all: no worries, because there's no school for _three whole months_!

Relaxing and doing nothing all day in my bedroom, lying on my bed, watching TV, grabbing my laptop and doing nothing. And that for three months!

…

At least, that was what I thought I'd do before I got dragged into a so-called music camp I had to stay in for the whole summer.

"Hotaru, what the heck are we doing here?" I sneered in irritation, glaring at the girl who was standing next to me.

"What do you mean?" she returned easily and brushed her fingers through her short, tomboyish black hair. I frowned. "I mean: what is this? Why are we here? Why am _I_ here?"

Hotaru sighed deeply. "Look, you love singing right?" I nodded my head. "Sort of."

"You love to dance, right?"

Again, I nodded my head.

"And, correct me if I'm wrong, but you want to learn all of that, right?"

I placed a loose strand of hair behind my ear; if I nodded again, I'd get serious neck problems. "Your point?"

"_Don't complain_," Hotaru told me and hit me on my head. "This is a music camp. Here, you can learn all sort of things that have to do with music. You have to smile and be grateful that I at least _brought_ you here with me." I rubbed the spot where Hotaru hit me and glared at her in annoyance. Grateful? My ass!

She had blackmailed me to come to this place. I didn't even know where it was. I really wanted to reject the idea, but then if didn't go with her she would show everyone pictures… _awkward_ pictures, to be exact. So, I had no choice.

"And what is the name of this music camp?" I asked slowly, placing both hands on my hips. Hotaru tapped her chin for a while. "Camp Ogakku."

I raised my eyebrow at that. Not really a name that suited my taste, obviously.

I rolled my eyes away from her. I seriously couldn't believe that she dragged me into this. We were _sixteen_, an age to go out, to party. An age that said, "You're too old to go to summer camps!" or whatever. Didn't she know that?

I broke the silence between us with a small groan. "So… what now?" I asked her, scanning the area around me. It surprised me that the field, where three big modern buildings were standing, was crowded with teenagers who were even older than me or younger.

"If you were thinking of going back, don't bother," Hotaru pointed out cockily, her arms covering her chest.

I only stared at her; what was that supposed to mean? I had a cell phone in my pocket. I could call my mother, ask if she would come and pick me up. There was no way my mother would attend Hotaru's stupid "get-Mikan-to-Camp-Ogakku!" plan. "What do you mean?"

"Like I said: you can't go back. Your mother already paid for this. So technically, you're a student here."

I widened my eyes; was that thought about my mother and Hotaru true? No wonder her actions after dinner were kind of suspicious... Great. Thank you, Mom.

"You're telling me I have to stay here the whole summer?" I questioned her carefully, just to be sure. She nodded curtly.

The reaction I presented her irritated her deeply.

"You're irritating," Hotaru said honestly, obviously not caring about my feelings. My gaze immediately narrowed at her. How could I be irritating when she had blackmailed me and brought me into that camp?

I inhaled the summer air to prevent me from saying anything stupid that'd only lead me to trouble, telling myself mentally to calm down.

I knew that she was actually telling me that I had to give it a chance, and maybe she was right. But still, I didn't want to.

It was mean and unfair that she and Mom had brought me here without saying anything to me. They had told me a thousand times that I needed to go after my music abilities, but I was always too insecure to do so, thinking that I wasn't good enough. Was that the reason that it brought them to a plan like that?

That was probably it, but my opinion stayed the same, and sleeping in a camp called Camp Ogakku was the last thing I would do.

"I don't really believe that a camp like this could help me learn all those things I want to do with music." I grumbled almost to myself.

This time, Hotaru glared at me with her cold, amethyst eyes. "I'm going to ignore you now." With that said, she walked away, really deciding to leave me.

"Hey!" I called after her but she just pretended that she didn't hear me. "Hotaru!" I walked after her. But as soon as she realized I was following her, her pace quickened.

I pouted. "Fine, I'm sorry, okay? Now don't ignore me! ... Hotaru!"

* * *

I grunted softly. Oh, of course. We're lost.

Hotaru and I were walking down the crowded hallways with other students passing us at a slow or quick pace; standing in a group or alone with someone else, talking and yelling.

We had to go to the administration office, but I didn't even know where that was. I just silently followed Hotaru, thinking that she knew the place here. But at the dark look the girl had, I knew that following her was just a waste of my time.

We'd been wandering along the long hallways for fifteen minutes and we _just couldn't find it_. We had a map, but that wasn't any help either.

I looked around me. "Hey, Hotaru. Try to find some signs or some—" I wanted to suggest before I bumped into someone, causing me to fall on the wooden floor.

I flinched at the slight string of pain that appeared while the person I bumped into deeply growled in his throat. "Look where you're going." The voice was deep, almost demanding.

I reopened my eyes and wanted to glare at the boy, but halted when I saw how good-looking he was: he had messy, raven hair and piercing, yet, warm crimson eyes that I had never seen before.

He gave me a nonchalant look, his hands in the pockets of his black vest, watching me intensely. I swallowed, feeling the butterflies in my stomach appear at the way he was looking at me.

Suddenly, his short eyebrow bounced up. "Are you going to say something or did you lose your tongue, idiot?"

The butterflies I felt a second ago immediately disappeared. I frowned deeply at him in insult.

The three boys that stood behind the raven-haired one, watching the whole scene, started to chuckle at the comment he made. My eyes fell on the blonde first, who had his attention towards a white rabbit that he held in his arms. His ocean-blue eyes darted to me, still petting the little animal.

It wasn't hard to see who the most handsome one of the group was.

On the left side of him stood a boy around his age with dirty-blonde hair. His chocolate-brown eyes were filled with mischievousness and he had his lips curved into a small smirk.

Not really trusting it, I eyed the other male who was standing next to him; he was a bald-headed guy with extremely short, almost black hair. His dark grey eyes were locked onto me while he was showing off a challenging smirk.

So those where the ones who chuckled and found what that rude bastard said funny… It annoyed me; what was so funny about what he said?

"Nice to meet you, too." I said sarcastically, finally removing myself from the cold floor. After I was done fixing my clothes, I decided to cross my arms strongly, wanting to let them know that I wasn't a girl who'd lose easily.

His look started to change all of a sudden; his expression was still as cold and emotionless as ever, but his eyes started to show that he was… amused, almost interested in the challenge. "What's your name, stupid?" he asked, which didn't make my mood any better. Someone seriously had to give him a prize for being The Rudest Boy in the Entire Universe.

I snorted and flipped my hair over my shoulders. "Why do you care?" I responded easily, taunting him a bit. "Tell me _your_ name first."

He rolled with his eyes through the fact I was reacting.

"Or should I call you… Good-looking jerk instead?" I added when he didn't react to my last sentence. I automatically grinned at what I said; he was rude, but don't forget that I could be too.

The way his expression changed made me almost laugh victoriously.

"My name?" he started, saying the sentence slowly and unlike I expected he neared the distance between us with his face. The warm breath tickled against my ear making me stiffen and my heart beating a bit faster.

"You're not worthy enough to know my name," I heard him say, and he pulled his face back, showing me a smirk as though he was saying, 'I'm better than you.'

I blinked, speechless.

"Ahem…" Hotaru fake coughed to gain attention. The jerk turned his attention towards her with a blunt look. "Oh, yeah. I almost forgot you. Can you forgive me, Freaky Imai…?" Freaky…Imai? Did he know Hotaru?

"Awh, that hurts a lot, Kitty Cat." She returned with a mischievous glint in her amethyst eyes.

Kitty Cat? I slightly blinked in confusion, not following it anymore. "Do you know each other?" I decided to ask the two, eyeing them one by one.

Hotaru nodded her head. Again. And then she folded her arms with a disappointed frown stickled on her forehead. "I'm afraid so." At that time, I felt incredibly sad for her.

"By the way, Kitty Cat, do you know, by any chance, where the administration office is?" Hotaru asked, her eyebrow slightly raised as she waited for his answer.

"You're lost?" he first returned, his expression still the same. I rolled my eyes, while the female next to me started to frown in annoyance. "Just answer the question; you're wasting my time."

The male shrugged and turned his back to us. "Whatever; follow me." With that, he walked away.

His friends said that they'd be outside and walked their own way afterwards. When they passed me, the one with the dark blonde hair and the bald-headed teen just smirked at me, while the handsome-looking male passed me in a cool manner, not even making any eye contact with me.

I sighed and quickly followed Hotaru.

This was going to be the longest three months of my life.

* * *

"Hotaru Imai," Hotaru said shortly at the receptionist; she was an old and thin woman with sharp eyes. Yes, we had finally found the administration office. It was thanks to that Good-looking jerk though.

I was standing behind Hotaru, waiting for my turn. We weren't the only ones though; the office was crowded with other students who were either standing by the receptionist or just leaving the office. Some were sitting on the chairs that stood against the plain white wall, waiting patiently for their turn as well.

"Here you go, Miss Imai," the receptionist returned and gave the Blackmail Queen some papers and something that looked like a key. Mumbling a small "thank you," Hotaru walked away.

"See you outside." The female said while passing me and without giving me an opportunity to say anything back, she was already gone.

Ignoring it, I took a step forwards, clearing my throat silently. "Uhh… Mikan Sakura."

The woman eyed me back, watching me sceptically. "Ah, yes. Miss Sakura." She opened her drawer and grabbed something out of it. "Here is your class schedule." She handed me the paper. I nodded my head one time and presented her a stiff smile.

"And here's the key to your room." She handed me the keys gently.

I stared at it.

"Your room is in building three, second floor, room 231." That wasn't so hard to remember.

Gazing up at her, I nodded twice. "Thank you."

The receptionist presented me a smile back. "No problem. Hope you'll enjoy your stay." At that time, I wasn't really sure about the "enjoying" part.

Without saying anything, I turned around and left the office with a slight quick pace.

When I was outside, I found the black-haired female leaning against the wall for support in front of me, arms crossed. "Oi, which room do you have?" was her greeting. I walked towards her. "Building three, second floor, room 231."

Her lip corners curled up. "Then we're both lucky: I have the same room as you do." I immediately sighed in relief; now I didn't have an unknown weirdo as my roommate, but my best friend who I already know for years.

I smiled in relief and quickly hugged her; as expected she didn't react, but just let me do it. "You've also got classes, right? What's your first period?" I questioned her when I let her go.

"Singing."

I widened my smile. "Singing, too!" Hotaru only shrugged as her reply. "Second period?"

"Dancing," Her black eyebrows raised as though she was waiting for what I had to say. The relief in me only started to grow more. "Me too!"

Hotaru pointed at the paper I was holding and I gave it to her. She scanned through it, holding her own up next to it. "We have all the classes together." She informed me after a moment of silence, ignoring the questioning look that I was throwing at her.

"Alright!" I exclaimed happily. It felt nice to have all the classes with her and to share a room with her, especially when I didn't know anyone... besides that jerk and his friends, then.

The thought of them made me only more insecure about staying here.

A long sigh escaped my mouth.

Hotaru frowned. "Don't tell me you're still thinking about the whole camp thing," I raised my eyebrows. "Duh, of course! After what you did to me… and with those guys… This is even worse than school!"

Hotaru sighed in frustration. "It doesn't look good now, but just give it a chance, and then I'm sure you'll be relieved that you had stayed."

"But—" I tried to protest but stopped when she threw me a glare. "You're going to give it a chance or else I'll _force_ you. I don't want to be seen with a girl who's whining every damn second about how stupid this camp is and how much she wants to go home."

I pouted in a childish way, having a thought that she just didn't get it. "Fine," I finally admitted, watching her softening her expression.

Music always had my attention; singing, dancing… And you could do something here with it, right?

"Good," she returned and walked off. I quickly followed her with a smile on my face. "Should we go check the whole camp? I wanna know what it all has."

Hotaru gave me an amused look. "Whatever you want."

* * *

The grass tickled my skin and the summer wind gave me a relaxed and good feeling.

I was thinking about how Camp Ogakku wasn't that bad at all, and how beautiful the place was.

Like what Hotaru had always said, I could give it a try; maybe what she and my mother did was a good idea. And maybe this was a lot better than lying on my bed, being in my room all day, doing nothing. Still, I wanted to get them for what they did.

I opened my eyes and sat up, seeing the three white buildings standing in the grassy field. The third building was way bigger and way prettier than the other two.

I blew out a bit of air between my lips and laid back down; I could rest a bit. Hotaru was somewhere else, but she didn't say where.

There were no classes anyway: it was the first day, and that was meant for resting and taking a good look around the camp. Hotaru and I had already done that; we didn't want to get lost again.

There were some really good things in the camp: the stage was amazing, and our room was too. Our dorm was my most favorite thing there. We had five rooms: a living room with a kitchen in it, two bedrooms, and each of us had a bathroom. We had also a quite good view of the stage.

Unfortunately, I didn't have such a room at home.

There were maybe some bad sides of the camp, like teachers, homework… and maybe it was just like school. But there was a thought in my head that this could be even _more_ interesting than that.

* * *

Sam – This story is inspired by the amazing story **My Music Camp** by **Tearless Sonnet**. And yes, don't worry, I asked permission to her to write this; now I only hope she'd like it. :P

This story is about rivalries, music, sorrow, friendship and of course love. Love can be either a cure or a poison; it all depends on what's happening because of it and how the person feels about it.

Hope you all liked it. Please review and don't flame.

Much love,  
Unknown Pain


	2. Drama Queen, My Rival?

**Written by –** Unknown Pain.  
**Disclaimer –** Hehe, I finally own something in this story! Kei Kakashi, Chika, Chieko and Chiharu Mori, Hana Shin, Kim Hoshi, Mai Takagaki and Cho Hibiki! ;D

**The Beat of Love**

"_Music is my soul, my life, I can't live without it. Without music, life would be a mistake." _

-Unknown Pain-

* * *

**-Chapter II – Drama Queen, My Rival?-**

"Hey, wake up," I called to the sleeping Hotaru, who just didn't want to wake up. "Hn…" was her reply.

I sighed deeply; it was always the same story when it came to this. Even if you yelled in her ears as loud as you could, it was still a damn waste of your time.

I still wonder how she did it.

"Hotaru, wake up!" I said again, this time my voice a bit louder, and headed to her bed. The same answer came from beneath the blankets again.

The irritation already appeared inside me and I scratched the back of my head in slight frustration.

It was already nine AM. The sun was shining brightly through her big window. It was early, I knew that, but I woke up around eight or something and I couldn't go back to sleep again.

I wanted to go to the canteen to eat some breakfast, but I was still too insecure to go alone and wanted the blackmailing queen with me. But it looked like my idea was going to waste.

"Hotaru!" I tried again. I ducked just in time before I got a pillow to the face. "Hey!" I yelled angrily and picked the soft object from the floor afterwards.

"Shut up," she retorted in a soft, sleepy growl and turned her back to me. My lips curved into a victorious smile. "Good, you're awake!"

"I'm not; I'm talking in my sleep."

I rolled my eyes. "_Right_. Is that a joke? Because I'm not—"

"I swear, if you talk again, I'll do something so you'll never open your eyes again."

I pouted in annoyance and disappointment. "Fine," I let her win and threw the pillow hard against her head. Ignoring the grunt she released from her throat to warn me, I headed to the bathroom, deciding to go alone.

I grabbed an orange ribbon (orange was my favorite color after all) and just when I was about to tie a ponytail, Hotaru's reflection appeared in the mirror.

I blinked, turning around to face her. "What is it?"

She presented me a dark look. "Seriously, what is wrong with you?" I raised both of my eyebrows. "What's that supposed to mean? I just don't want to go to the canteen alone."

"Is that why you woke me up this early?" Hotaru returned, narrowing her amethyst eyes. "Just because you're too damn afraid to go alone?"

I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment. "Well… yeah. I woke up around eight and I couldn't fall back to sleep again, so that's why it's so early." I told her slowly. "I also want some breakfast and I thought that if I woke you up, you would go with me."

Hotaru sighed and ran her fingers through her messy hair in frustration. "You're unbelievable."

I suddenly started to feel a bit bad about what I did; maybe I had to do it differently. "I'm sorry…" I mumbled.

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever." She eyed me again. "But fine, have it your way,"

My lips curved automatically in a smile.

"I'll go with you. But if you ever have an idea like this again, I'll make sure you'll never leave this camp alive." With that, she turned around and left the bedroom like nothing had happened.

I frowned at the threat she threw at me but turned around and continued doing my hair. I knew it was just the bad mood talking. And at least I didn't have to go alone anymore.

* * *

The voices of shouting students reached my ears and immediately annoyed me; how could they have that much energy when it was so early in the morning? "They're annoying," I said honestly with a low voice.

"You think?" Hotaru agreed with me, who was sitting next to me, taking a bite from her bread.

I looked at it in disgust through the corner of my eye; on her bread was a purple colored… thing, whatever it was. I didn't even _want_ to know what it was.

I swallowed and slightly shifted away from her. "You're disgusting." Hotaru just shrugged and continued chewing on her food, obviously not caring about what I said to her.

I decided to look around me: the canteen was huge with white walls, many wooden tables that were all filled with students; no empty seat left. It made me think about school… No school, right? What a joke.

I leaned backwards to look behind the other ones who where sitting at a table next to mine. My look changed into surprise when I saw a huge crowd of girls. The crowd was standing around something. I couldn't see much, but it looked like they were asking (more like _begging_, actually) someone something.

I couldn't exactly hear what they were saying, but I could hear something like, "Oh, please! Can you eat with me?", "Do you want to dance together with me?" and other things that had to do with asking people out. It confused me: what the heck was going on there?

"Ugh, for crying out loud, will you just shut up?" a male voice suddenly could be heard, making the crowd of girls flinch, their voices fading away slowly.

The silence soon filled the whole canteen and everyone their eyes were turned to the direction of where that huge crowd was standing.

Hotaru and I watched intently what happened. That voice actually sounded pretty familiar…

"Man, I have a headache because of you! You're all going to pay—!"

"Oh, shut it, Koko. No one really cares about your complaints."

The said male snorted, irritated.

"I really don't know why you're all doing this. I mean, crowding around our table like that, begging to get some attention from us. Seriously, do you really think that would help? You're only making it worse, and don't think I'm the only one with this kind of opinion."

"Tch, idiotic fan-girls," a low growl could suddenly be heard. My heart started to skip a beat for a moment. "That's why I _hate_ them." The girls gasped at the last sentence. With a hurtful and disappointed moan, they left.

The four males appeared as soon as the sight wasn't blocked by that crowd anymore; Good-looking jerk was sitting on the table while his three friends were sitting on chairs next to it.

"Dude, thank you for saying that," started Koko through a chuckle. "Now they're finally gone." He slapped on the raven-haired one's shoulder in a playful way.

I creased my eyebrows before I looked over at Hotaru. "Did you see all of that?" She nodded at me as an answer. She took the glass with milk in her hand.

"Are they that popular?"

Hotaru shrugged her shoulders. "Around the girls, yes."

"Because of their looks, right?" I watched them from my eye corners.

"Obviously. Kitty Cat has always had many girl fans."

I raised my eyebrows, suddenly getting more interested. "Oh yeah, you know him. From what, actually?"

"School," was her curt answer after she took some sips of her milk.

I gave her a surprised look. "What do you mean 'school'?" I returned in a high voice, not believing it. "I've _never_ seen him before and we're attending the same school!"

Hotaru put her glass away, already showing that this was annoying her, and faced me. "Okay, do you remember when I left?" I only presented her a nod; she had to transfer to another school when she was only six years old. We saw each other again after three years, I believe. "So?"

"That's the reason why I know him: we were in the same school and he was my classmate." I blinked in surprise, never expecting to hear such thing. "For real?"

That explained a lot of things.

She placed some locks behind her ear, her amethyst eyes turned to the four boys. "Yeah. You never met him because he left one year after you came."

I darted my eyes to the direction where Good-looking jerk and his friends were sitting; he jumped off the table and walked away with the other three following him. They made me think of how dogs always followed their master.

"Are the other three his dogs or something?" I questioned as they disappeared through the door, turning my attention back to my best friend.

"You can see it like that; they're always following Kitty Cat and doing everything he tells them to do. He's like the leader of the group. When he left, those idiots decided to go after him." The last sentence was said in a deep voice.

"Names?" I asked her nonchalantly, flipping my hair over my shoulders. She gave me a frown. "Why do you care…?"

My eyebrows raised and I shrugged. "Because. Just interested, that's all." I told her honestly, not making a big deal out of it.

Hotaru rolled her eyes away from me and sighed through her nostrils. "The one with the bunny is Ruka Nogi. The one with the dirty blonde hair is Kokoro Yome, but they prefer to call him Koko. And the one with the almost black hair is Mochiage, but everyone calls him Mochu."

Stupid boys _do_ have stupid names after all.

"Anyway," she suddenly said and the female stood up. "I'm going." I gave her a confused look. "Where?"

"I don't know; I'll see."

"Alright," I responded, already signing her that I wasn't really interested in where she was going anymore.

The female placed her hands on her hips. "You can go with me or not, but the opening ceremony will begin in about an hour at the stage." I simply nodded, keeping my mouth shut. "I'll see you there." And with that, she left.

* * *

"Great, there's that idiot who bumped into me yesterday,"

Opening one eye to see who it was, I only found Good-looking jerk sitting next to me on the grass with his emotionless expression painted on his face; my heart skipped a beat. I frowned though.

Opening the other eye, I sat up.

"Hello, Good-looking jerk." I smirked and placed my hands behind me to lean on them. I had my gaze locked on him.

"So my name is Good-looking jerk, huh…?" he responded, his eyes turned to the direction of the sun which was shining brightly on the two of us. I nodded my head. "You don't like it? I also can call you _Secret_, if you want."

His eyebrows furrowed while he gazed at me through his eye corners; I knew I had him. "Funny," he reacted, his deep voice dripping of the sarcasm.

I just chuckled in amusement.

After some long seconds of silence between us, the male asked, "What's your first period?" I gave him a surprised look. "Why… do you wanna know?"

Good-looking jerk shrugged in a nonchalant way. "No reason."

I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously. "You're going to follow me, right?" Then I widened them. "You're a stalker!"

That made him glare at me in irritation. "I'm not a stalker, you moron. Now, tell me what your first period is."

"Singing," I finally answered, still looking at him suspiciously.

"Second period?" he continued asking me.

I slightly got afraid of him for the fact that he wanted to know which classes I all had, but nonetheless I still answered. "Dancing…" Good-looking jerk only gave me a nod before he threw his gaze elsewhere. "Third?"

I answered all his questions about the classes I had before I asked back, "I'm going to ask you again: why do you care?"

The lad shrugged nonchalantly. "Like I said: no reason." He probably didn't even care that I was stabbing him with an irritated glare.

He stood up, dusting off his clothes. His rare eyes were turned to a direction where the sound of voices could be heard in the distance.

"The opening ceremony will begin soon," Good-looking jerk informed me. I looked at the same direction he was looking at. "So that's why the place where the stage stands is so crowded." I mumbled almost to myself.

The male rolled his eyes away from me immediately after I closed my mouth again, as if it was the stupidest thing to say.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "What?" I spat in annoyance.

He only shrugged, not even caring about the glare that I was throwing at him. "You're an idiot," he responded honestly, not giving a damn about my feelings _at all_.

"Why am I an idiot?" I gasped, insulted.

The boy slowly shook his head and as his eyes were turned to me, I saw the amusement glistering in his rare eyes. He let me hear a small sigh. "Never mind," he mumbled under his breath, just loud enough for me to hear.

"Tch," I retorted and turned my head away from him while pushing my nose in the air. He probably never learned any manners from his parents.

The silence echoed between us. It didn't take long before Good-looking jerk broke it with a question, "Are you coming too, or what?" I blinked as I gazed back at him. "Huh?" I breathed in confusion.

"You heard me," he returned, his raven eyebrow slightly raised, waiting for my reaction.

My eyebrows creased. "Are you asking me to come with you to the ceremony?"

Good-looking jerk frowned in a second, as though what I said the worst thing he had ever heard. "No," he said after some seconds of silence. "I want to _lead_ you to the ceremony."

I was surprised to hear such a lame excuse. "You want to— what?" I sighed in frustration and shook my head. "Whatever. Fine. _Lead_ me to the opening ceremony, then." It didn't really matter; at least I didn't have to go alone… even if I was accompanied by him. It was at least sweet of him to help me, right?

I stood up and followed him to the crowded place.

As we reached the stage, I saw how many students of this camp were waiting for something to happen. Almost everyone was sitting on a white, plastic chair that stood in front of the stage.

Good-looking jerk walked towards his good friends I liked to call Dogs, while I was scanning everything around me, hoping to find Hotaru.  
It didn't take long before I noticed that there was absolutely no sign of her. Where the hell was she? I thought she said that she would see me at the ceremony.

Deciding to wait for her, I walked over to an empty chair. Settling down, I crossed my arms over my chest, somewhat pouting through the way I was feeling.

"Uh… hey," I looked next to me to the three girls that had called. "Can we sit here?"

I looked over at the three empty chairs standing next to me. I nodded my head twice. "Sure," I told them and they immediately claimed the chairs as theirs.

One girl had long, orange hair that she had tied up in a high ponytail. She had her strong yet warm pink eyes turned to me as she was presenting me a smile. "Thank you," she said.

I smiled back. "No problem."

The other girl who was with her had dark blonde hair which she had tied up in two pigtails and orange eyes.

The third one looked the most tomboyish of the three: she had brown hair with some blonde highlights that just passed her shoulders. Her sky-blue eyes were scanning the area around her in a bored way; she had all the right to be bored, actually.

When I looked closely, I found that, in a way, they looked like each other.

Suddenly, the sky-blue eyes of the third girl stopped on me. She looked at me for a small, silent moment, before she asked, "What's your name?" Her voice was deep and dull, yet you could still hear that she was a girl.

I blinked in surprise through the fact that she wanted to know me, but I still responded anyway, "Uhh… Mikan Sakura. Yours?"

"Chika Mori," she introduced herself immediately and placed her hand on the left shoulder of the dark blonde haired one next to her. "This is my younger sister, Chiharu,"

The said girl presented me a wide, excited smile. "Hi!" I just presented a smile back, finding it cute the way she reacted.

"And the one in the front is my older sister, Chieko."

Chieko smiled at me sweetly and gave me a nod. "Nice to meet you, Mikan,"

"Nice to meet you guys too." I returned, hiding the fact that their names were kinda… weird.

"Is this your freshman year?" the youngest of the three asked with slightly raised eyebrows. I nodded my head twice. "Yeah. Yours too?"

Chieko shook her head. "This is already our third year at camp." My eyebrows raised in surprise. "Third year?" I exclaimed as they were nodding their heads at the same time. "This is your third time staying here?" I didn't get why they were going so many times to this camp.

Chika nodded her head, crossing her arms over her chest. "We like it here, so yeah. But I think this will be our last camp year."

"How so?" I asked, curious.

"Because nothing changes here," Chieko told me. "Everything's been the same ever since we got here. There are some different classes, new teachers and new study books, though. Other than that, it's like déjà vu."

"Yup," agreed Chiharu as she put out her jacket. "It's getting boring, you see?"

"Oh…" I said; that was nice to know.

Not two seconds after that, everyone started to cheer. The lights from the stage turned on a moment later.

"Ah, finally, it begins," the pink-eyed teen informed as though we hadn't realized it yet.

A man walked with a calm pace on the stage to the microphone that was standing in the centre.

"Who's that?" I asked.

Chika turned to me for a second. "He's the owner of this camp, Kei Kakashi."

The so-called Kei Kakashi took the microphone and blabbed some things about the rules of the camp, making some boys in the back groan in disappointment.

Chiharu and Chieko giggled, giving a quick glance to the direction of the groaning before they turned their attention back to the stage.

After some minutes, he was done talking.

"Oh, one more thing," he quickly added. "Each week someone must show us what he or she can do. We'll let you know if it is your time with help from a letter, so be prepared for that!" Kei halted his words so he could hear the surprised reactions of some in the audience.

He presented a small smile and continued, "There is also a final competition, but because this is just the beginning of the new year, you'll hear about that later. I hope you'll have a lot of fun here at Camp Ogakku, and may we feel the power of music inside of us!" And with that said, everyone started to cheer for him while he walked off the stage.

* * *

"So… you were there the whole time…? And nonetheless, standing by a damn tree?" I began in annoyance after Hotaru told me the reason why I couldn't find her at the opening ceremony.

I put the books that I didn't need for class in my locker and closed the door of it.

Hotaru her locker was two lockers away. "Uh-huh," was her simple reply and closed her locker as well.

"Didn't you promise to meet me there?" I retorted, my hands placed on my hips. The female walked past me in a nonchalant, uninterested, way.

I groaned softly and, not knowing what else I had to do, I followed her.

I got nervous when we neared the classroom.

Hotaru opened the door and we stepped into it; everyone was there already, sitting in their seats, their attention turned to us.

I quickly followed the black-haired female as she sat down on the empty seat in the front of the class. While trying to ignore every stare, I claimed the seat next to Hotaru's one as mine.

I gazed at the woman who was standing in front of the classroom; she was obviously the teacher. Her brown eyes were already telling me that she was a strict person.

"Hey, Mikan!" someone suddenly called at me. I smiled when I saw it was Chiharu. "Hey, Chiharu!" She giggled happily and waved at me.

Together with her two sisters, she was sitting one line behind us at the left side of the classroom.

"Hey," I greeted them as well and the two smiled back: Chika giving me a greeted nod while Chieko waved a little bit.

"Who are they?" Hotaru curiously asked me, peering over her shoulder to see who I was greeting. "They're Chika, Chieko and Chiharu Mori. They're the ones who I met during the ceremony, where you _ditched_ me," I told her casually with a small, mischievous smile attached on my face.

"Hn."

I rolled my eyes and turned them to the three girls. "Oh, by the way, this is my best friend, Hotaru Imai."

"Nice to meet you, Hotaru," Chieko said with a smile while Chiharu nodded her head in agreement. Hotaru gave them a small nod as her greeting, before she turned her back to them.

"Alright, can I have everyone's attention, please?" asked our teacher and everyone stopped with talking, turning their attention over the woman.

As it was completely silent, she continued, "For the new ones here: this is Singing class and I'm the teacher for it, Mrs. Serina Yamada. Nice to meet you all." She stopped for a small moment so someone could react. As nobody said anything, she continued, "Now, before we begin, I want to tell you that Singing class is all about—" But before she could even continue with her sentence, the door rudely swung open and four teenagers walked into the class as if nothing had happened.

I shook my head in disbelief and folded my arms in front of my chest; the four teenagers were of course Good-looking jerk, Ruka, Koko and Mochu. Who else had the nerve to walk into a classroom like that?

"Mr. Hyuuga," Serina's voice was dripping with irritation, her gaze stiffly locked on the said male. "You and your dearest friends do know that the rule here is that you have to be in your respective classrooms punctually, right?" she asked. When Good-looking jerk turned to her to present her the universal "I-don't-care" look and shrugged, she narrowed her sharp eyes.

I scoffed softly because of how stupid what he did was. He seemed to hear it because he glanced at me for a quick second, raising his eyebrow in a cocky way. Then he darted them back to the adult that was standing in front of him, "I forgot," was his simple answer; he said it in a voice as though it was the best excuse ever.

"Hmm, you and your friends are forgetting many things lately, aren't you, Mr. Hyuuga?" Serina placed her hands on her hips. "Are you guys, perhaps, getting old?"

"Tch," he retorted lowly. "Whatever." With that said, he walked over towards his friends who had already claimed some empty seats as theirs… behind _me_.

Seriously, why?

"Natsume! Hey, Natsume! Come sit next to me, please?" some girls in the back of the classroom started to call, not giving a damn if they would get caught or not.

My eyebrow bounced up in confusion. "Natsume?" I mumbled to myself, eyeing Hotaru. "Who's Natsume?"

"Kitty Cat," she replied easily, her chin resting on her hand palm in a bored way. "Huh?" I returned, not quite following her.

"Kitty Cat's real name is Natsume Hyuuga, but I prefer Kitty Cat instead."

I mouthed an "oh", peering over my shoulder to look at him. I had to admit, Natsume Hyuuga wasn't an ugly name. But still, no way I was going to call him by his first name: he didn't even deserve it!

"Natsume, come on!" the girls started again; I darted my attention to the "begging-for-some-attention" group and saw the love in their eyes. They were obviously his fan-girls, no doubt.

It didn't surprise me that he had fan-girls squealing all over him, I mean… come on: he was cool and extremely good-looking. Unfortunately (for me, that is), he's a damned _jerk_.

I turned back to Natsume who had his chin in his hand. When he saw me looking at him, he raised his eyebrow in a questionable way.

"Can't believe that you can ignore them," I said. He shrugged. "It's a gift I got from God." The Dogs chuckled at that sentence and all nodded their heads in agreement.

"Natsume? Aren't you forgetting something?" We all turned to the one who had asked that question, seeing a girl with her black hair tied up in two, long ponytails and her bangs almost covering her snow colored eyes.

"What do you want?" the male sneered back, not wanting her to accompany him. "Uhm… Well... I wanted to ask if you'd come and sit next to us…" Her face slowly turned a deep red color as the words rolled out of her mouth.

"Come on Ms. Cho, you can do it!" Three girls were standing not far away from that Cho-girl. "Go! Go! Go!"

I stared at them in surprise, wondering who they were.

Natsume didn't reply to what that black-haired girl said but the way he glared at her and her three cheering friends, already said enough.

"So, are you coming…?" she continued asking, her eyebrows raised in a pleading way. "No." He told her curtly and turned away from her. A frown was presented on his forehead.

She presented him a painful look. "But—" Natsume looked at her sideways through his eyelashes and glowered at her, as if he was saying she had to be careful. "I said _no_. Now, go away, _Hag_."

As much as I didn't want to, I giggled.

Her snow eyes immediately turned to me to shot me a glare. Whoops. "What's so funny?" she snapped at me and took a step in my direction, her hands strictly placed on her hips.

"What he said." I just said back, a bit surprised that she could be so… dramatic.

Her eyes narrowed at me; thank God looks can't kill. "How dare you? Do you even know who I am?" I shook my head slowly as my answer, while the voice in my head said, "A very annoying person?"

"Well, my name is Cho Hibiki. Everyone calls _me_ the Princess of the Music and the queen of _this_ camp."

I stared at her in silence while her three friends were nodding their heads briefly, highly agreeing at what she just said.

"Yes," the blue-haired girl said arrogantly. "I am Hana Shin," She looked at the girl with blonde, wavy, hair that stood next to her. "That's Kim Hoshi and the girl next to her is Mai Takagaki." The said-girl showed a mean smile before brushing her fingers through her short, black hair.

"We're the best friends of Cho," Mai continued. Kim nodded twice. "Yes and we demand you show her a little bit respect."

It took me a while to react to that, "W-what…?" I let them hear and couldn't hold the urge to laugh awkwardly.

They were insane!

Cho's black aura started to appear. She glowered at me the best she could. "Are you laughing at me…?" she growled lowly.

"Well… who wouldn't be?" I said honestly, ignoring the way her look even darkened. "Come on, why the hell do you call yourself that?"

"Because it's the truth!" Cho snapped. I rolled my eyes away. "_Right_. You're a Drama Queen, alright, but you're nothing more."

"What did you call me?" Her breathing was loud and her face started to get red as some of the students, who were watching our show, chuckled lowly under their breath.

"Drama Queen," I answered her question easily with a smirk, and crossed my arms over my chest in a victorious way.

"Why am I a so-called 'Drama Queen'?"

I sighed; I couldn't believe that I had to explain that to her. "Because you totally freaked out when I laughed a little about what Good-looking jerk said." I pointed out and glanced at him.

Cho's black aura started appear around her and she had to bite her lip for a while to control herself, her eyes still narrowed dangerously.

We stared at each other for a silent moment, our gazes narrowed. I didn't really know why we were staring at each other but it was as if she wanted to find out about something.

"You're in love with him, aren't you?" the Drama Queen muttered under her breath, just loud enough for me to hear.

My eyes widened, surprised that she'd ask such things. My heart skipped a beat when I thought about it, but then I mentally shook my head. "I don't fall in love with jerks," is what I always told myself and promised myself. So why would I break that now?

I gave her a cocky look. "Yeah, right. In your dreams, Drama Queen. Give me one reason why I should be in love with him."

"Because you laughed about what he said to me!" she pointed out, her voice a bit higher than first. "So that's proof that you're interested in him!"

"You're crazy," I retorted low.

"Take that back!"

"Okay, you two, stop it!" our teacher, Serina, suddenly butted in and stopped the fight we were having. We turned to her at the same time, both keeping our mouths closed.

"Ms. Hibiki and Ms. Sakura, wasn't it? You're disturbing my class. First Mr. Hyuuga and his friends, and now you two?" Her voice was extremely low and her eyes warned all of us that we had reached the important "do-not-cross!" line.

"I'm sorry, Miss…" I said simultaneously with Cho.

She sighed and brushed her fingers through her hair. "What are you? First years?" I nodded my head, a bit embarrassed about it. "Y-yeah…"

"No, Miss, this is my second year!" Cho said it like it was the most amazing thing in the world; I just looked at her through the sideways of my eyelashes, my mouth curved in a thin line.

"Then I'm disappointed in you, Ms. Hibiki; if this is your second year here, then you already know the rules, am I right?" The said girl nodded her head in embarrassment, suddenly finding her feet really interesting. "Yes… I'm sorry."

"I hope you are," the adult responded. "Both of you. Now, go back to your seat and don't let this happen again, understood?" With one last nod, we did what we were told.

After the class was in silence again, Serina continued with teaching, "Alright, like I was saying: this class is not all about singing; it's also about making music. Of course you'll still learn how to use your voice properly, but—" I turned around when someone called my name. I frowned in irritation when I saw that it was Cho.

"What do you want?" I whispered in a harsh voice, still trying to keep my voice down so I wouldn't get caught.

"From now on, you're my rival." The female said easily, confidence filling her sharp eyes. My eyebrows raised immediately. "What?" I returned.

"You heard me," Cho reacted and flipped her black hair over her shoulder. "About Natsume; he'll be mine, you hear me?"

"You're insane!" I hissed after I shook my head twice. She scoffed. "Say all you want, but believe me, _dear_, I'm not an easy one to deal with."

Oh, God…

* * *

Sam – And this is the end of chapter two. Anyway, I hope you like the names that Mikan is thinking; I had them all from school… ^^''

Btw, I've got no idea if the three Moris are related to Reo Mori; the last name of the girls just popped randomly in my mind and I found out later that Reo's last name was the same. Maybe they will be related to each other: it probably would make it more interesting, don't you think? :3

Please review and no flaming; criticism that will help me improve are accepted.

Much love,  
Unknown Pain.


	3. No Love for Jerks

**Written by –** Unknown Pain.  
**Disclaimer –** Disclaimed.

**The Beat of Love**

"_Music is my soul, my life, I can't live without it. Without music, life would be a mistake."_

-Unknown Pain-

* * *

**-Chapter III – No Love For Jerks-**

"Ms. Sakura," Serina suddenly called out. I immediately turned my attention to her, alarmed. "What did I just say?"

I blinked. "W-what?" I murmured as my answer, making the adult shook her head. "Like I thought. I just told the class that I want someone to sing in front of the class, so I know what kind of experience you already have. And through the fact that you weren't listening to me at all, I want you to be first."

I frowned while my amber eyes grew big for a split second. "S-sing?"

Serina nodded her head. Great…

"Good luck," Hotaru said in her usual, emotionless voice. I narrowed my gaze at her. "Do you even care?" The female shook her head.

I scoffed and then turned around to scan the classroom. Seeing all those eyes turned to me made me extremely nervous. I took a deep breath, swallowed deeply, and slowly rose from my seat.

"Uh, Miss, can I sing?" My look darkened from annoyance and darted my eyes to the princess in shining armor who stood already up from her seat, as though Serina already gave permission to let her sing.

"Hmm. Ms. Hibiki, are you sure?" Serina asked slowly, not completely sure about her idea. Cho nodded her head briefly, unlike our teacher, completely sure about it.

"Okay, fine; Ms. Sakura, you can sit down. Ms. Hibiki, come forward, please."

Without any second thought, I sat down again, relieved; as long as it wasn't me, it was totally fine by me.

I watched the way she passed my table with her nose high in the air, her three Cheerleaders cheering for her.

"Do you need anything before you sing?" Serina asked her. Cho nodded her head twice. "Yes," Her white eyes turned to her three friends. "Girls, check my bag and grab a green colored CD out of it." She commanded them as if she was their boss. To my surprise, they even _listened_ to her.

"Good. Put the CD in the CD player and turn it on number fourteen." Mai grabbed the CD, did what Cho told her to do, and pushed some buttons. As soon as she did that, the classroom was filled with music.

* * *

**_A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton_**

* * *

_Making my way downtown  
Walking fast  
Faces pass  
And I'm home bound_

_Staring blankly ahead  
Just making my way  
Making a way  
Through the crowd_

_And I need you  
And I miss you  
And now I wonder..._

_If I could fall  
Into the sky  
Do you think time  
Would pass me by  
'Cause you know I'd walk  
A thousand miles  
If I could  
Just see you  
Tonight_

_It's always times like these  
When I think of you  
And I wonder  
If you ever  
Think of me_

_'Cause everything's so wrong  
And I don't belong  
Living in your  
Precious memories_

_'Cause I need you  
And I miss you  
And now I wonder..._

_If I could fall  
Into the sky  
Do you think time  
Would pass me by  
'Cause you know I'd walk  
A thousand miles  
If I could  
Just see you  
Tonight_

_And I, I  
Don't want to let you know  
I, I  
Drown in your memory  
I, I  
Don't want to let this go  
I, I  
Don't..._

_Making my way downtown  
Walking fast  
Faces pass  
And I'm home bound_

_Staring blankly ahead  
Just making my way  
Making a way  
Through the crowd_

_And I still need you  
And I still miss you  
And now I wonder..._

_If I could fall  
Into the sky  
Do you think time  
Would pass us by  
'Cause you know I'd walk  
A thousand miles  
If I could  
Just see you..._

_If I could fall  
Into the sky  
Do you think time  
Would pass me by  
'Cause you know I'd walk  
A thousand miles  
If I could  
Just see you  
If I could  
Just hold you  
Tonight_

* * *

My eyes grew big as her voice touched my ears. She sang everything perfectly. _Perfectly_! She sure was good.

My eyebrows were raised in surprise while Cho closed her eyes. Her arrogant smirk changed into a warm smile; she was really enjoying it.

"Woah." I mumbled to myself, my voice soft.

"Yeah, she's quite a good singer, isn't she?" I turned to Chieko, who was also the one who asked me that question. "You knew this?"

Chieko nodded her head. "Yeah. She won last year the final competition with singing." I frowned in confusion. "You mean the competition… Kei was talking about…?" The orange-haired Mori nodded her head easily.

I darted my attention back to Drama Queen who was still concentrating on her voice. I had no idea that a spoiled little brat like her could have a talent like that.

It didn't take long before the female stopped, and some seconds later, the music did as well. She reopened her eyes and waited for everyone's reaction. Not ten seconds after she did, everyone started to cheer for her and gave her a loud applause. Her three friends of course did the same, but did it in some kind of rhythm.

"Thank you, Ms. Hibiki," said Serina with her lips pressed into a small smile and headed to her. Cho's smile grew as she heard the compliment. "It was amazing, as always; your voice hasn't changed."

Cho thanked her and walked back to her seat with the same smile.

As she passed my seat, she glanced at me through her eye corners as though she was saying, "Try to beat that," and her lips immediately turned into a sly smirk.

The annoyance boiled up inside of me again and I turned away from her. Curse her and that voice of hers...!

* * *

I heaved a sigh in frustration, my arms folded around my chest. "What the hell is that girl's problem?" I started loudly, my voice a bit high.

Chieko turned her pink eyes to me and shrugged. "Well, let's just say that she's _crazy_ about Natsume and she did/does _everything_ to own him."

I sighed again and ran my fingers through my long locks. "I figured…" I was silent after that but soon I started to narrow my eyes in irritation when I re-called what she said to me this morning in class. "Stupid girl… Calling me her rival only because of Good-looking jerk. Isn't that just stupid?" I looked over at the other four girls to see their opinions. "She really is a drama queen."

Chiharu nodded and just put a loose strand of dark blonde hair behind her ear, her eyebrows raised. "Well, then you didn't have to see her last year," she said. "She was scarier than she is now!" Her two older sisters agreed with her immediately.

"Just ignore her, Mikan," the black-haired female suggested, standing next to me against the tree for support.

"Even if I did that, it wouldn't help anyway: she's too annoying and too scary! Nobody can actually ignore someone like that!"

Hotaru shrugged nonchalantly. "I can," she responded to my comment. I rolled my eyes away from her. "That's just because you've got no heart."

Hotaru grunted in a uncaring way, shoved her hands in her jean pockets before walking away. "I'm going to get some food," she informed us and peered over her shoulder. "Dancing class will start in about half an hour. You can come with me, but if you do, please stop complaining about Kitty Cat's fan. It's annoying me."

I almost forgot… Dancing class; I wasn't really excited for the class. Not that it was bad or something, I mean, dancing is nice. But I was tired, seriously.

"Fine, I'm coming," I told her and followed her.

The three Mori's stayed behind, though. "We're not going," said Chika. "We have something to do." Chiharu nodded and when her older sisters walked away, she quickly waved at us. "See you later in Dancing class!" The girl quickly ran after the other two.

I nodded my head and waved them goodbye. Watching them for a split second, Hotaru and I turned around and headed towards the canteen.

"Hey, Hotaru, maybe we're going to see Good-looking jerk, too," I said in a soft grunt to break the silence that popped up between us, somewhat warning her.

Her amethyst eyes darted to me. I raised my eyebrows at her serious expression. "What is your problem, Mikan? Are you starting to like him or something?" she asked me directly, in a voice as though she was warning me.

I looked at her in confusion, surprised that she'd even asked me such question. "What? Me? In love with him? Are you starting to mimic Drama Queen or something?" I crossed my arms over my chest cockily, my forehead frowned. "Why do you think I thought of that nickname for him? He's a good-looking guy, true, but he's a jerk: an emotionless jerk who thinks he can say and do whatever he wants."

"Hn." Was her useless reply and darted her attention away from me. I watched her for a moment before I raised one of my eyebrows evilly. "Why, jealous...?"

"Hah," Hotaru directly answered as we opened the door to the canteen. "I don't even know what that means, stupid. I just asked it because you're talking about him _a lot_, that's all." I glared at her softly. "I do not!"

He was indeed interesting, but that was the only good point about him. Just because he was interesting didn't mean I was in love with him, right? He was a jerk, and jerks didn't deserve any kind of love.

"Whatever," Hotaru sighed, already having enough of this and quickly walked to an empty table; I followed her of course.

Our attention turned to Cho who, together with her three friends, was trying to ask Natsume and the other three lads on a date.

I smiled in amusement when I saw the dark looks on their faces: their plan obviously failed.

"Seriously, why's she still trying to win him in?" I asked, slightly shaking my head. "You _obviously_ can see that Natsume, Ruka, Koko or Mochu aren't interested in her."

"She's madly in love with him, therefore she's blinded by the love, so what else do you expect?" Hotaru said bluntly. I agreed with a nod.

"Natsume, please dance with me at Dancing class," Cho asked him, batting her eyelashes flirty. I stiffened upon hearing that and widened my eyes. "You've got to be kidding me… is she going to be at that class too?"

Hotaru nodded easily. "And Kitty Cat too, probably."

"Then that means his Dogs are going there, too…" Oh, no…

All of a sudden, Koko turned his brown eyes to our direction as he probably caught us looking at them, and his lips curled up into a smirk when he saw me. "Hey!" he called out.

It didn't take long before his three friends and the four girls turned their attention to me as well. "See you at Dancing class!" He waved playfully while his smirk was showing off mischievousness.

Cho and her Cheerleaders began to glare at me, while Mochu and Koko chuckled. Ruka shook his head at what his friends were doing, but the corners of his lips curled up nonetheless, and Natsume just looked at me nonchalantly. Though, his eyes twinkles in amusement.

Hotaru just sighed in annoyance and frowned. "I can't wait…" she said in sarcasm. I slightly swallowed and cursed them in my mind. "I really want to go home now."

* * *

Sam – Sorry if it was too short, but my arm is hurting like hell, seriously. D: Therefore I couldn't write so much and I wanted to update this day.. It's now 16:44 PM and I have to go to the hospital on 17:00… So yeah, wish me luck guys! :D

Please review and don't flame.

Much love,  
Unknown Pain


	4. Dancing King

**Written by –** Unknown Pain.  
**Disclaimer –** Disclaimed.

**The Beat of Love**

"_Music is my soul, my life, I can't live without it. Without music, life would be a mistake." _

-Unknown Pain-

* * *

**-Chapter IV – Dancing King-**

"What is this, a second building or something?" I exclaimed in surprise as I scanned everything around me. Hotaru and I just walked into the Dancing class classroom… Well, what you called a "classroom". It was huge!

"This is where you have to dance. Why do you think it's so big?" Hotaru pointed out matter-of-factly, her arms crossed in front of her chest.

I creased my eyebrows when I halted my gaze on the amount of students here. Even if there were around the fifty in the class, you _still_ had enough room to dance.

Almost everyone stood against the white wall or sat on the dark blue floor; they talked to each other to kill their time or some even looked nervous.

Everyone was waiting patiently for the teacher.

It shocked me when I saw Natsume, Mochu, Ruka, and Koko… So they were actually in this class. Oh, dear God.

Koko was the first one who noticed me and with his usual, annoying smirk, he touched Natsume's shoulder. His lips started to move and he watched me through the corners of his eyes. He then pointed a small finger in _my_ direction.

I blinked in confusion, wondering what the hell he was doing.

With a raised, not-caring, eyebrow, the male followed his friend's finger and his crimson eyes stopped on me. With a questionable look, I gazed back at him, slightly swallowing.

"Ohh, I see you're having a staring contest," Chieko chirped half giggling. "And with Natsume? I knew you two where interested in each other." I glared at her warningly, hiding the urge to blush. "Shut it. You've got no right to have those thoughts; they can damage your brain."

Chika raised her eyebrow at me. "That doesn't even make sense."

"Trust me, it's the truth."

This time she rolled her eyes away from me. "Trust me, you're an—" Unfortunately, she halted her words when the door suddenly opened and a guy with long, blonde hair that hung on his shoulders walked cheerfully into the classroom, whistling a soft tune.

His eyes were the same as Hotaru's, but they didn't look as emotionless as hers did.

He gazed around for a small moment before he clapped into his hands, "Alright, everyone. Sit down on the floor, please!" This obviously had to be the teacher of this class.

Everyone, including me, did what the adult told us to do. I sat down next to Hotaru, our attention turned to the man who stood in front of the whole group.

"Yo," I widened my eyes and slowly faced my left with a horror-filled expression. "You've got to be kidding me…"

Natsume looked at me innocently, as though he did nothing wrong. "What in the world are you doing here?" I sneered under my breath.

"Sitting."

"And bothering me, obviously," I added, rolling my eyes away in an irritated way. Natsume shrugged nonchalantly, his eyes fixed on me; he really didn't care about my feelings, did he? "I'm bored."

I narrowed my gaze at him. "That doesn't even make sense!"

"For the students who are freshmen here, I'm Mr. Narumi, the teacher of this class; nice to meet you all!" He showed us a brighten yet sweet smile.

After a small moment of silence, he asked, "First of all, who here is experienced in hip-hop?"

I already had the corners of my lips twisted up and raised my finger. Hotaru did the same; she's an amazing dancer.

When I looked around to see if there were more, I saw almost all the students of this class had raised their finger.

Natsume, also, had raised a small finger to answer the question our teacher asked us. His friends had raised their fingers, as well.

Narumi chuckled, glad to see that there were so many who were experienced in hip-hop. "Good! Now, all the boys to the left side of the room and the girls to the right."

I blinked in confusion, not quite following his (probably) weird idea, but did what he told us to do anyway; I stood up and followed Hotaru to the right side of the room.

I leaned together with her against the white wall for support, our attention to the blonde teacher, waiting for him to explain what he's planning.

Narumi started to walk around the empty floor in a small pace, his gaze on us. "As you may know, this class is all about dancing: hip-hop, ballet, street-dance, modern dance, and more. But now, I want to start the first lesson of this year with hip-hop."

He placed his hands on his hips as he turned his amethyst eyes to the males. "So, guys, who wants to begin and show your dancing skills?" he asked sweetly, his lips curved into a gentle smile.

They didn't say anything or move. Their expressions clearly showed that they were too nervous and afraid to dance.

I looked over to Natsume, who'd removed himself from the group and walked over to the CD player that stood near the door. His three Dogs were following him, of course. The raven-haired one put a CD in the object and pushed some buttons in.

He turned around when Ruka, Koko and Mochu started to whisper something. Natsume whispered back, shrugged and together they walked over to the center of the room, gaining all the attention. Unlike the leader of the group and the blonde one, Koko and Mochu grinned widely, very certain of themselves.

Soon after that, the music started coming from the CD player.

A good beat filled the room.

My lips parted slightly of amazement when the three started to dance. The movements weren't slow or lazy: they exactly showed what hip-hop dance was.

My eyes automatically locked on Natsume who stood in front of the three, and widened my eyes; his movements were maybe the best of all of them. It was… amazing! His body moved to the beat _without_ any problems.

"Whoah..." I muttered under my breath.

Chika nodded and crossed her arms over her chest, her lips slightly curled. "Whoah, indeed. Just like last year; he hasn't change at all."

I wanted to face the girl but, strangely enough, I couldn't. It was as though something stopped me, didn't want me to look away from him. "What do you mean 'like last year'?" I still asked.

"This is his second year in the music camp. And he was so good last year, they called him the best dancer of the camp." Chiharu answered.

"Seriously?"

Chiharu nodded her head twice and even Hotaru gave a nod in agreement, "Yeah, I have to admit, he's good."

He wasn't good, "He's amazing...!" I blurted out. Soon, I started to widen my eyes for what I said and couldn't stop the urge to blush in embarrassment.

I watched the way he stood on one of his hands, spinning on it… all the things I wished I could do, but couldn't. He really was an expert.

I wondered where he learned all of this.

His great muscles were clearly visible and his t-shirt damped because of his sweat; my cheeks started to feel hot and slowly, my heart started to speed up.

The cheers of the girls could be heard, squealing at how hot he looked and asking their friends if this was a dream.

Too bad it wasn't.

Natsume flipped his hair back in a lazy manner and his raven hair swept into his crimson eyes almost the whole time, which didn't really make it better for me to deny the fact that he was making a completely fool out of himself.

The feeling of wanting to be by his side, wanting to get all the attention from him suddenly appeared inside of me; just out of blue. I swallowed thickly, wanting to get rid of it by not watching him, saying mentally that he looked stupid: all the opposite things that I really was thinking about him. But even if I looked away, my eyes always found a way to look at him.

The sweat slide down his face and the lured look his eyes presented got me already a thought I'd never expected I could think just because of him: _maybe this music camp isn't so bad after all._

But then, the music stopped and so did Natsume and his three friends.

The girls were mostly the ones who gave them a loud applause, cheering, almost screaming the four boys' name. While almost all the other males kept their mouth shut, grunting in irritation and looked at the four with narrowed eyes; no doubt that they were jealous.

I just stared at them, mostly at Natsume, replaying the whole dance in my head. And then, crimson orbs turned to my amber ones.

I gasped softly and turned away from him quickly, snorting loudly while I folded my arms over my chest; I really didn't want him to show that I actually enjoyed the way he danced.

"Mikan, you're blushing," Hotaru suddenly pointed out. "W-what…?" I let out first before I faced her and narrowed my eyes. "… Shut up."

Hotaru creased her black eyebrows for a moment before she shrugged, not really caring about it.

I turned my attention back to the four males and slightly sighed in relief as Natsume turned his back towards me.

"That was amazing, boys! Just like last year," Mr. Narumi complimented with a smile. Natsume, Mochu and Koko didn't bother to say anything. Instead, they shrugged and left Ruka behind, who was polite enough to show the teacher a smile and say "thank you", before he followed the three.

Narumi turned his attention towards to us group of girls. "Now it's your time, girls!" Nobody did what our teacher said.

Everyone, including me, was busy looking around the group, hoping to see if there was someone brave enough to step out of it and to dance.

"Hey, Mikan, Hotaru," We snapped our faces to the three Mori's who presented us an excited smile; we gave them a questionable look, waiting for them to continue. "Do you want to come with us?" Chiharu asked us.

I blinked. "Where to?"

"Dancing, of course!" Chiharu beamed. My eyebrows raised upon hearing that.

"So…?" Hotaru started her sentence.

"So, in other words, you're going to dance… _with us_!" Chieko responded happily while we just stared at her in silence.

"You're kidding me, right?" I asked, just to be sure. Chika shook her head as an answer and without even saying anything, she grabbed our hands and pulled us out of the group. Her sisters followed us closely towards the CD player.

She grabbed a CD and put it in. After she pushed some buttons, she grabbed our hands again and dragged us towards the centre of the room.

I widened my eyes when I realized that they _were_ serious about this.

The three sisters were standing in front of me and Hotaru, glancing at each other. I started to get irritated, "H-hey, if you really want us to dance with you guys, then _at least_ tell us what kind of movements we have to do."

The oldest teen of the three peered over her shoulder to look at us. "Just look at us and we'll give you a sign when it's your turn to dance, okay?" Translation: we had to do the exact same thing they were doing.

I looked over at the black-haired girl who shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. "Wouldn't be too hard." I presented a small smile and nodded my head in agreement.

The music started. It was of course a different kind of music than the one before; it was slower, though, it still had a good beat that filled the classroom.

The three girls were dancing perfectly on the beat as though they were doing it every day. Their expressions already said that they were really enjoying it.

Then, all of a sudden, Chieko her pink eyes turned to our direction and she gave us a sign to say that we needed to dance, too.

I started to dance the exact same movements as the three Mori's were doing, and it was, to my relief, with ease. I felt nervous through the fact that all the attention was turned to us, but even so, I still could keep up with the four.

The music stopped after two and a half minutes, or so, of dancing.

Our classmates gave us a loud applause, and some even began to cheer our names. I wiped some sweat off my forehead, sighing deeply in relief that it was over and smiled victoriously over at Hotaru; she ran her fingers through her short, tomboyish hair and let me see a smile of her own.

The three in front of us tried their best to take control of their breathings again while they looked at each other proudly. Even Chiharu was so glad that she started to jump in joy and embraced her two older sisters soon after.

Chika's sky-blue eyes shifted to our direction, a smile curved on her small lips. "Well done, you two. You did _great_."

We both smiled and, while I nodded, Hotaru shrugged nonchalantly before she faced me. "Good job," she complimented in her usual emotionless voice, but her eyes were showing everything except for that.

I gave her a nod and a wide smile. "Thanks. You were awesome, too, Hotaru!"

Her expression changed again and she raised her eyebrow. "I never said you were awesome." I stared at her with my own eyebrows highly raised. "What?" I returned, my voice a bit higher than usual.

The female just turned away from me as though she didn't hear me; I pouted childishly. "_Hotaru_…!"

"Great job, girls!" Narumi suddenly came between us. "That was really well done,"

His cheerful eyes shifted to me and Hotaru, and we gave him a questionable look back. "Especially from you guys."

We both smiled at him while I was the only one who thanked him. After that, the five of us headed back to the group.

* * *

I heaved a deep sigh as I placed my head in the green grass, wanting to have some rest before I'd go back to my dorm and get a good night sleep.

I had my eyes closed for a small moment and, when I reopened them, I curved my lips into a small smile when already some stars started to appear in the dark sky, twinkling already beautifully.

"You didn't tell me that you could dance,"

My mood immediately went below zero as soon as that voice reached my ears, and my look started to grow irritated. "What are you doing here?" I returned and looked at him from the sideways of my eyelashes, not planning to sit up.

Natsume sat down near me on the grass, one of his knees up where he had his arm placed on. "What, don't you like being companied by me?"

"No," I told him directly and turned my head away from him, my eyes closed.

"Liar. You like to have my attention."

I stiffened at his words. "What makes you think that?" I asked him, still the back of my head presented to him and my eyes closed.

I sensed him smirking, "I saw the way you looked at me back at Dancing class." My heart started to pound faster and I licked my dry lips. I turned to him with my eyebrows furrowed. "So? That doesn't mean anything."

Natsume's eyebrow raised cockily yet seductively. "It means you liked it and enjoyed the way my body moved."

"Hell no!" I immediately yelled, a blush touching my cheeks; his smirk only widened through my (probably amusing) reaction. "I-I totally didn't like your dance and the way… your body moved or whatever you called it!"

The male titled his head a little bit to the right, his crimson eyes, glistening through the moon, narrowed at me suspiciously. "You sure?"

"Yes!" I sneered without thinking twice, my eyes slightly widened. "I-I hated it; it was horrible. Even a five-year-old could dance better."

The way his expression changed told me that he didn't really like that comment, "Have you looked yourself in the mirror already? Your dance made my eyes burn."

I started to glare. "That's not true!"

Natsume gave me a cocky look and shrugged his shoulders. "I've always learned from my parents _not to lie_."

Hurt by his insults, I snorted loudly and stood up when I had an idea in my mind to get him back.

I stood in front of him with my hands on my hips. "Right. Well, _you_ were dancing like _this_." I started to dance like an idiot, pretending like I was him and that he was the one who danced like that.

Natsume rolled his eyes and stood up as well.

I still continued making a fool out of him, and I even enjoyed doing it. But then I took some missteps and tripped over my own feet. I couldn't keep my balance and already closed my eyes when I knew I'd fall. But instead, I fell against Natsume who caught me just in time.

My eyes widened in shock. I was immediately paralyzed as soon as my head touched his muscled chest, my heart beating an unhealthy pace.

I was positive that my face was as red as a tomato.

"Stupid moron," he let out. Right after that I could control myself again and quickly pushed myself out of his arms. "Watch where you're going, or something," Natsume continued with slight hints of annoyance in his voice.

"I-I—" I stammered and swallowed loudly, trying to calm myself down. Natsume looked at me questionably, waiting for me what I had to say. "T-that's the way y-you.. dance!" I said as an excuse, pointing at him for a quick moment.

He just looked at me with his usual emotionless and bored face before he started to burst out into chuckling; I blinked at this. Was he laughing at me?

"You really are an idiot," he said in amusement, his smirk shown on his face, before he turned his back to me. "Stupid girl." He walked away as if nothing had happened.

* * *

Sam – And this was chapter four. With seeing Natsume in another light, it makes it a lot more interesting for Mikan to stay in the camp; I can't blame her, really.

Anyway, hope you liked it and please review; thus no flaming.

Much love,  
Unknown Pain


	5. Cafeteria Incident

**Written by –** Unknown Pain.  
**Disclaimer –** There's a new member of the group. His name is: Sasuke Kakashi. ^^

**The Beat of Love**

"_Music is my soul, my life, I can't live without it. Without music, life would be a mistake."_

-Unknown Pain-

* * *

**-Chapter V – Cafeteria Incident-**

I flopped onto the couch with a deep sigh. "Finally," I started to moan and stretched tiredly. "Dancing class is _finally_ over. I thought it'd _never_ end."

Hotaru flopped onto the couch in front of me, nodding her head one time in agreement. "Tell me about it," she returned.

The three sisters were looking around in our room, their eyes wide in amazement. "So this is your dorm?" Chieko started and moved around the living room we were currently sitting in.

"It's so cool!" Chiharu beamed and took a quick peek in Hotaru's bedroom before she twirled around to face us, her hands clasped against each other. "And huge!"

Chika just came out the kitchen and headed to my bedroom, opening the door to peek in it as well. "And I thought our dorm was big," she said in her usual nonchalant voice.

She turned around and headed towards our direction, sitting next to Hotaru. She crossed her arms over her chest in a calm way, her lip corners slightly curled up. "Seriously, you guys are damn lucky."

I smiled and nodded my head in agreement.

I blinked when I saw Chika's expression turning into pain. She rubbed her neck softly with a slight frown. "What's the matter?" I asked her, slight hints of worry could be heard in my voice.

She gave me a small, soothing smile. "My neck is just hurting a little bit, that's all."

"Yeah… My neck is also hurting," Chiharu said with a slight moan. "Thanks to Dancing class, of course." I agreed; that class was a hell. We had to learn how to spin on our heads and almost everyone failed at doing it.

"The only ones who weren't failing at it were Kitty Cat and his three friends," Hotaru said, slightly annoyed with her arms crossed.

I nodded and shrugged afterwards. "What do you expect? They're experts when it comes to dancing."

Not one second later, they started to stare at me with slight surprise, their mouth still shut. I frowned in confusion. "What?"

"Since when did you like Natsume, Koko, Mochu and Ruka?" Chieko asked directly.

"Huh, how so?"

"You're always talking bad about them, insulting them and everything," she explained and started to cross her arms over her chest in a cocky way. "And now you're praising them… Are you starting to like the guys?"

Chika shook her head and curved her lips into a small, amusing smirk. "Not all of them, Chieko, she only finds _one_ of the four interesting," I started to blush slightly in embarrassment and of course the girl saw that; her smirk slightly widened as she raised her brown eyebrow. "Do I even have to say it?"

"You're wrong," I returned strongly. "I don't have any interests or whatsoever in Good-looking jerk."

Chika raised her eyebrows, faking to be surprised. "So you _do_ know that I was talking about him? Hmm, clever."

"That's not a big surprise, actually," the black-haired female started all of a sudden, her elbow leaning on the armrest of the couch. Her cheek was resting on her hand in an uninterested manner. "The way you watched and blushed when you saw him dancing already said enough."

"T-that has nothing to do with anything!" I uttered, trying to stop blushing in embarrassment. I was probably the only one who didn't like the way they picked on me like that.

Chiharu giggled and headed to my direction. She sat down next to me, placing a hand on my shoulder. "It's okay; it's nothing to be ashamed of. I mean… he's hot, so it's only natural to fall in love with him." I glared at her the best I could. "I'm _not_ in love with him!"

"How cute, she's already in the first stage: denial." Hotaru commented, her voice dripping of the amusement.

I really started to get pissed off. "Stop it! Why are you picking on me like that?" Hotaru her eyebrow slightly elevated, throwing me a cockily look. "Who said we were picking on you? Maybe we're speaking the truth," she said matter-of-factly.

"The truth about what?"

"About the way we think about it."

We were really starting to have a serious quarrel about it. The three sisters had noticed about it, as well, and decided to stay out of it and just watch the whole thing from the sideline.

I started to throw her a cocky look back. "If you think I like him, think again. You know what kind of promise I ma—"

Her expression started to show off irritation. "Promises always get broken; doesn't matter if it happens right after you made it or after a year."

I glared at her darkly. "_I_. _Don't_. _Like_. _Him_. Get that in your head!" Her cocky look didn't disappear as she said with her lips into a tight line, "Looks like you're not only lying to us but also to yourself."

I immediately closed my mouth after hearing that and just stared at her with an angry expression, my eyes slightly widened.

"Okay, who's hungry?" Chika suddenly butted in to stop the quarrel we were having. Her two sisters said "me" in unison while Hotaru and I looked at each other in silence, both glaring.

She was wrong, is what I thought, seriously wrong. I wasn't lying to myself or to them; I thought indeed that he was hot, that he was interesting, but does that already mean that I like him? What had happened inside of me when I saw him dancing three days ago and what happened between us afterwards didn't mean anything. Any girl would blush if that happened to them, right? It was only natural. If they liked to call it "love" and see it that way, so be it. But I thought different things about it.

"Hotaru, Mikan…?" Chiharu asked carefully, seeing the way we had our eyes locked onto each other. Hotaru snorted, looking away with her eyebrows furrowed. I also turned away, biting the insides of my cheek softly.

"Do you want to come as well…?" Chieko asked slowly, afraid of the reactions we would give her. I eyed her with my eyebrow raised. "To what?"

"To a cafeteria in Central Town; we've got no classes now anyway and I'm hungry," Chika told us, brushing her fingers through her locks.

"Depends on what Hotaru wants," I responded and eyed the female in front of me, wanting to forget the whole quarrel we just had some seconds ago and just act normal with each other again.

She gazed at me without moving her head. After a small moment of silence, she shrugged coolly. "Doesn't matter to me," she returned.

"Is that a yes?" Chieko asked with a smile, her voice a bit higher. Hotaru curled her lips into a small, cool smile and nodded her head twice in a curt way. "That's a yes."

* * *

"Here we are!" Chiharu chimed as she closed the door behind her. Hotaru gazed drily at her from the corners of her eyes. "We're not blind."

The youngest Mori slightly sweat dropped at that and scratched the back of her head, chuckling in an embarrassed way. "Yeah, yeah. Sorry."

We were in the cafeteria the three sisters talked about. It was crowded with people and they were mostly kids from the camp.

I blew out some air through my lips as I noticed that there almost weren't any empty seats left. "Great.."

"Crowded as always," Chika muttered slightly in irritation, her arms folded in front of her chest. With a "hn", Hotaru headed to the spot where the trays where and took one in her hands.

I blinked before I furrowed my eyebrows. "Hey, wait!" It wasn't a surprise that she ignored me.

We grabbed a tray as well and quickly followed her to the lunch line.

"Ms. Cho, you're really smart; that will _definitely_ work. I just know it!"

"You're amazing, Cho… as always, of course."

I widened my eyes in shock as soon as the name "Cho" touched my ears, and slowly turned around in horror towards the direction where those voices came from. My eyes stood still on a girl with a long, black ponytail who was sitting at a table in front of three other girls, who were smiling brightly at her.

Oh. My. God.

"Cho…" I mumbled harshly under my breath and quickly turned to Hotaru. As she was busy putting her food on her tray, I tapped her on the shoulder; she eyed me from the corners of her eyes. "Trouble," I said in an annoyed tone and pointed a small finger to the one I was talking about.

Hotaru followed my finger and her expression darkened when she saw the girls, too. "Great," she muttered with a sigh in annoyance.

"What's wrong?" Chieko asked, her forehead slightly furrowed in confusion.

I placed a loose strand of hair behind my ear before grabbing some pudding, and put it on my tray. "Don't look, but Drama Queen and her beloved Cheerleaders are here as well."

Her orange eyebrows raised in surprise and her two younger sisters looked up too. "Cho?" the three asked in unison.

I nodded my head curtly, keeping my eyes turned to my tray. "Yeah, so don't look. Just pretend like you haven't noticed her or something,"

Chiharu and Chika nodded their heads in agreement and did what I told them to do, but, unfortunately, Chieko didn't, "Where is she then?" She looked around, hoping to find her.

I slightly furrowed my forehead. "Chieko!"

The dark blonde girl placed a hand on my shoulder to soothe me a little bit. "Just ignore her, Mikan," she told me with a sweet smile. I nodded my head, smiling. "I was already planning on doing that, but thanks."

Chika put a sandwich on her tray. "What the hell are they doing here?" she grumbled with a frown of annoyance. "Eating, obviously," I returned and secretly peered over my shoulder to look at them again; I only got more annoyed as I saw the proud yet spoiled smirk Cho was presenting her so-called friends. "And being annoying as hell."

Suddenly, the snow-colored eyes of that girl suddenly turned to me which caused me to bite the insides of my cheek; not good. "Ah, the sisters Mori, the cold Imai and my irritating love rival, Sakura; how nice to see you girls here."

We had to walk away when we had the chance, was what I thought the whole time while she was speaking to us.

"Yeah, nice to see you here too, Drama Queen," I greeted with a deep sigh.

Cho her eyes narrowed warningly. "How many times do I have to tell you _not_ to call me like that?" I rolled my eyes away from her; it didn't really matter how much she was going to tell me, I wasn't planning to stop calling her by that nickname anyway.

"Whatever," I responded just before I picked up my tray and followed the other four girls, searching for an empty table. After a long time of searching, we finally found an empty seat and quickly claimed it as ours.

I looked at my sandwich and slightly frowned, not having a big appetite anymore. Sighing, I rested my chin on my hand palm.

Chieko locked her gaze on me. "What's wrong?" she asked, her eyebrows furrowed in worry. "Hmm…" I mumbled as I turned my attention to her. "Nothing much; it's just that I slightly lost my appetite now Drama Queen is here."

"Why?" Hotaru started to question me. "Too scared to eat?" I frowned at what she said. "_No_," I sneered to make sure she'd get rid of that thought. "I just don't trust them, that's all."

I felt her piercing gaze stabbing my back, and when I peered over my shoulders, I saw the way they giggled under their breaths, every time whispering something.

They were definitely talking about me.

"They're planning something," I told the others in a low voice. Chika sighed slightly in annoyance. "Mikan, seriously, ignore them; they're not worth it. And remember, Cho only likes it if you're paying attention to her." I nodded slowly and brushed one hand through my hair, facing the four girls again. "Probably."

"Ugh, you've got to be kidding me," Hotaru suddenly grunted, receiving from all of us a questionable look.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"I forgot to get my drink…" Her look darkened when we started to chuckle in amusement.

"Boohoo, poor Hotaru," I teased her and at the same time, I scanned my tray for my drink. Soon, the amusement disappeared and annoyance came in its place. "Dammit," I cursed under my breath.

Chika raised his eyebrow and her lip corners curled up, already having an idea what was wrong. "Don't tell me you forgot yours, too," I didn't say anything, instead, I looked away.

Her and her sisters burst out into laughter.

"Isn't Karma a bitch?" Hotaru asked me with a cocky smirk. I just huffed in annoyance.

"Well, while you two have fun getting a new drink, I'm going to the toilet." Chieko said through a giggle and stood up from her chair.

Chiharu nodded her head twice and stood up as well. "I need to go, too."

Hotaru and I looked at Chika questionably, waiting for her to stand up, too. Noticing us looking, she blinked her sky-blue eyes in confusion before she frowned. "What? Just because Chiharu needs to go to the toilet too, doesn't mean I suddenly need to go."

Hotaru shrugged. "Well, it could, right? I mean, you three are always together," I nodded my head in agreement.

Chika glared at us in annoyance. "But we don't go together to the toilet," Chiharu and Chieko chuckled, finding it funny, and then they left us alone.

Some seconds later, Hotaru stood up from her seat as well. "Where are you going?" I asked her and slightly started to frown. "Are you going after them?" Hotaru glared at me in irritation. "No, I'm going to get my soda that I forgot, you moron." And without I could insult her back, she was already gone.

I sighed and, while Chika chuckled under her breath, I quickly followed her. "Hey, wait for me!" I called, hoping she'd stop and wait for me but _no_, she didn't.

I shrieked when she stopped abruptly and I almost bumped into her back. She turned around. "You think it's safe to let Chika all by herself while those annoying brats are here, too?" I blinked for a second and nodded my head soon after. "Yeah; Chika isn't afraid of them and I bet she's also stronger and smarter than them. Besides, it's too crowded to do something anyway."

Hotaru shrugged as an answer and headed to the soda machine. When she was busy with filling our plastic cups, I turned around to look at our table, not fully trusting it.

I widened my eyes when I saw that Cho and one of her three friends were standing together in front of _our_ table; Cho was telling her something, her friend giggled at that, and Chika had her sky-blue eyes narrowed, saying something back.

I got a shocked feeling when Cho put something on _my_ tray and said something with her annoying smirk all plastered on her face. Not a second later, Chika stood up from her seat with a scowl, and almost yelled at them, pointing to their own table.

Cho shrugged and with a calm pace, she walked back to her table with her friend following her.

I touched Hotaru her shoulder. "Done yet?" She nodded her head curtly before she raised her eyebrow questionable at me. "Good, because it looks like we've got trouble."

"What do you mean?" she asked me in her usual low voice.

"Cho and one of her three friends just stood at our table…"

Immediately, Hotaru grumbled something under her breath and she followed me with our drinks in her hands.

When we stood still in front of our table, the first thing Chika said was, "Good, you're back," I looked at her with almost a frustrated frown. "What in the world are they doing here?"

"Just look at your tray, then you'll know the answer," the girl responded, her voice dripping of the dark irritation.

Hotaru and I both did what she said and cringed in disgust as we saw worms lying on it; my eyebrows twitched. "… W-worms. Worms?" I glared at Chika as though she had put those disgusting things there. "They freaking put _worms_ on my tray?"

Chika nodded her head curtly, her lips into a tight line. "Yeah. She said, 'here is a little present for your friend; I hope she'll like it'." She mimicked her voice the best she could.

Anger started to boil inside of me. "I'll get that girl back…" I growled deeply under my breath so only Hotaru and Chika could hear me.

"Hey, what's go—?" Chieko and Chiharu asked in unison before they saw the worms on my tray, and screamed in horror, causing a lot of gazes to turn to us. "Are those… WORMS?" the orange-haired girl asked with her voice a slight octave higher, and her eyes wide.

Chika nodded her head in a calm yet annoyed way. "And you get three guesses as to who put them here."

"C-Cho...?" Chiharu guessed slowly, not completely sure if it was her or not. I presented her a fake smile, as though I was proud of her for having it right. "Bingo!"

Chiharu furrowed her dark blonde eyebrows. "Why are they putting these disgusting things on your tray?"

I held my shoulders up. "They see it as a joke," Chika answered her question for me. This made the female raise her eyebrow. "Well, what a joke."

Hotaru turned to me. "You know, you need to get them back," she suggested, her hands on her hips. "Something that makes them regret that they did this."

I curved my lips into a slight smile, a little bit amused. "Trust me, I was already thinking of that."

"Do you already have an idea?"

"No…"

This made her roll her amethyst eyes away from me. She grabbed my soda and poured some on my tray.

We all watched her in confusion, wondering what she was planning to do.

Then, she grabbed the tray and handed it to me; a mischievous smirk had touched her thin lips. "Good luck," I looked at her for a moment before I finally realized what her plan was, and raised both my brows. "You want me to…?" I didn't finish my sentence.

She nodded her head simply and watched me curving my lips into the same smirk she was presenting me. With one simple nod, I took the tray with me to Cho's table.

Cho's strong eyes turned to me when I stood next to her, "Hi, did you like your present?" I presented her a deep frown and only got more annoyed when she presented me that smirk of hers back.

I gave her a fake smile, nodding my head twice, while I was yelling at her in my thoughts. "Yeah, thanks." Cho raised a thin eyebrow for a split second, obviously not expecting such answer. With the same spoiled and mischievous expression as before, she said, "Good. So, you don't mind if I do it again?"

Her friends laughed, encouraging her leader to continue.

I bit the insides of my cheek to stop myself from exploding right then and there, and shook my head quickly. "Nope, not at all. But next time," I halted my words and showed her a smirk as I lifted my tray above her head, dumping everything on her. "Don't forget that I don't like presents that come from you, _bitch_."

I stopped myself from laughing as her Cheerleaders screamed in horror and disgust, watching the way how the pink liquid and the worms slowly slide down her black locks and face, dripping on the floor.

Cho was sitting there like stone: her body stiff and her eyes widened, and as it finally came into her head what I had done, she screamed at the top of her lungs, silencing every other person that was sitting in here in the cafeteria.

She stood up with her hands into fists. "O my God! SAKURA!" She turned to me and I was lucky that looks couldn't kill, "How dare you to do this to me?"

I crossed my arms in front of my chest, glaring at her in a cocky way. "What? Hey, I just thought that you wanted a _present_ back. You don't like it?"

Her face was red from anger and embarrassment as some of the students started to chuckle at seeing her, her black aura leaking out of her. "I'll make sure you're going to regret what you just did…" she growled under her breath, her breathing loud and deep.

I huffed at her, almost challenging. "Whatever you want, but don't forget that _you can't win against me_." Cho gritted her teeth. "We'll see about that." She stormed out of the cafeteria with her friends following her quickly, calling her name ever second.

I walked back to the others as though nothing had happened, and sat down, watching Chieko, Chiharu and Chika bursting out in laughter.

"That was hilarious!" Chika laughed, almost having tears in her sky-blue eyes. "Seriously, that was amazing; I loved the way you owned Cho. Good job."

I grinned and looked at Hotaru. "Had a little help," I winked at her and she just shrugged nonchalantly, her lip corners curled up into a cool smirk that almost looked like a smile.

"Now I know what she's going to do the whole night," Chiharu started, making me blink. "What do you mean?"

"Like what?" Hotaru asked her as she put her soda on the table. Her orange eyes scanned us for a moment before she chuckled. "Isn't that obvious? Trying to get those worms out of her hair, of course."

I giggled at that. "Then I wish her all the luck in the world."

* * *

"That was really fun!" Chiharu chimed cheerfully, swinging her arms around with a bright smile. I turned to her and smiled as well, nodding my head in agreement. "You could say that again."

"I know, right?" Chieko started to giggle under her breath. "Especially when Natsume, Ruka, Koko and Mochu came," She elbowed me playfully, a smirk touching her lips.

I gave her a confused look. "What?" And then, she shook her head, still presenting that smirk of hers. "Nah, nothing."

I slightly frowned, not really believing her but decided not to pay attention to it. I looked up at the sky which started to get an orange color. "The sun is setting…"

"Duh, it's already 17:30 PM. If we're quick, then we're just in time for dinner." Chika said, her eyes also turned to the sky before she gazed back at the road.

After some minutes, the three white buildings started to appear in the distance.

"I wonder what that little brat is doing now." Hotaru muttered all of a sudden, still in her usual emotionless voice. "Getting those worms out of her hair, obviously," responded Chika calmly, her lip corners curled. We all started to chuckle at that and I parted my lips to say something, but halted when my phone started to vibrate in my pocket.

I stopped walking and not a second later, everyone did the same, turning around in confusion.

"What's wrong?" Chiharu asked me.

"Someone's calling me," I told her as I fished my phone out of my pocket, seeing that the name of my mother was presented on my screen. I flipped it open and pushed it against my ear with a small smile. "Hey, Mom."

"_Ah, Mikan, dear! How are you?"_ she immediately reacted as soon as she heard my voice; I sensed her smiling. "I'm fine, you?"

"_Same. But I have to admit: it's kind of quiet now when you're not around here."_ I chuckled at that, finding it sweet. "So you already miss me after a short week and a half?"

Mom chuckled back. _"I guess so. You don't miss me, then?"_

"Of course I do!"

Her chuckle could be heard again. "_Good. Do you like the camp so far?"_ It took me a while to answer that, but then nodded my head as though she could see it. "I'm starting to like it, yes."

"_So you're not angry about the whole thing of getting you into the music camp?" _

"I was," I answered easily and turned my eyes to the three sisters and Hotaru. "But I've got Hotaru and I met three awesome girls who know everything about the camp, so that made it all good again. Besides, I can't leave the camp just like that, so I thought it would be best to make it the best summer of my life."

"_Looks like you're starting to grow up,"_ was my mother's reaction to what I said, making me frown. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She laughed and I saw her already shaking her head in amusement, presenting one of her beautiful smiles. _"Never mind; I'm glad to hear that you're doing fine. But I've got to go. Do your best and I'll call you again as soon as I can, okay?"_

I nodded. "Okay."

"_Bye, dear."_

"Bye." I hid my phone again in my jean pocket and walked back towards the others.

"And, what did your mother say?" Chieko asked as soon as we continued on walking towards the camp, her pink eyes turned to mine. I shrugged my shoulders calmly. "She just wanted to know how I was doing and such."

"I wish our parents would call us sometimes," Chiharu mumbled softly, a little bit sad. "What do you mean?" I asked with my eyebrows raised.

"Our parents are divorced and we're living together with our father," Chika told me and Hotaru with a frown of annoyance. "Both of our parents are too busy with their work to even take care of us."

Chieko nodded and pushed with both of her hands her orange hair backwards. "We don't hear a thing of our mother and our father is just too busy to even look at us. So that's also a reason why we're here."

"Even _my_ mother doesn't let me hear her voice once in a while," Chiharu added, hints of anger appeared in her childish voice. I blinked at that and halted my steps, looking at the youngest female in confusion. "Wait.. what? Your mother…?" I pointed a small finger at the other two. "But… that's also your mom, right...?"

Chika looked at me with a raised eyebrow, as though I was stupid, while her older sister shook her head and placed her hands on her hips. "Chiharu is our step-sister," The said girl smiled proudly as she nodded.

I just stared at her in silence, not expecting that. Chika saw that and crossed her arms over her chest. "Did you really think we three are really blood sisters? Chieko is seventeen, I'm sixteen and Chiharu is fifteen; with each of us having one year of age difference, it'd be only obvious that we all aren't related to each other."

I didn't respond to that, feeling a little bit stupid for actually thinking that they really were sisters of each other. Hotaru shrugged nonchalantly. "Makes sense," I furrowed my eyebrows. "But you and Chieko are… related to each other, right?"

The two nodded their heads at the same time.

"Oi, Chika, Chieko, Chiharu!" We all turned our attention to the direction where we heard that voice coming from; a boy from around our age ran to us with spiky, crimson hair and with eyes that were as red as blood.

"Sasuke!" Chieko and Chiharu yelled at the same time and both ran to him to meet the said person. Both girls embraced the lad as though they hadn't seen him in a couple of years. And even though he had an annoyed expression on his face, he still let them hug him, his arms hung calmly at each side of his body.

Hotaru and I just watched them in silence.

When they let him go, the male started to speak in his deep voice, "Where the hell were you guys?" he started to question with his crimson eyebrows deeply furrowed. "I was looking for you three all day."

Chika raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. "Sasuke, calm down."

"I am calm," he said and his voice even shrunk lower of the irritation he felt. Chieko blinked and placed her hands on her hips in a cockily way. "You don't look like it."

Sasuke frowned at her. "You would do the same thing if you're wasting your damn day with looking for three girls who don't answer their phone calls—"

"You called us?" Chika interrupted him. Sasuke nodded twice. "Otherwise I wouldn't say it, now would I? Why didn't you accept your phone calls and answer your text messages?"

The three started to look at him dryly, "My battery is dead," was the brown-haired female her explanation. "And I forgot mine." Chieko and Chiharu said in unison with one of their hands in the air.

Hotaru shook her head together with the male while I giggled in amusement.

His dangerous-looking eyes started to narrow at what he heard. "I can't believe I'm actually friends with three idiots."

Chika smirked while her two sisters started to look at him with both their eyebrows raised, insulted. "Dude, be glad you are, because we're the best friends you'll ever have." Sasuke rolled his eyes away and for a split second, I swore I saw the corner of his lip twitch.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke!" Chiharu whined and the orange-haired female took a step closer to him. "What can we do to make you forgive us?"

Sasuke sighed and he fished a paper out of his jean pocket, handing it over to the oldest Mori. "Start by reading this."

Chieko slowly took the paper in her hands and started to read the words that were written on it. Some seconds later she started to furrow her orange brows, obviously not happy what she was reading. "Not again… Why are we always the ones who have to go first?"

Chiharu blinked in confusion and took the paper from her. Chika headed to her direction and read it with her; their looks started to turn into the same expression Chieko had. "Great…" Chika mumbled while Chiharu sighed deeply in frustration.

"What's wrong?" I asked carefully, watching Chiharu walking to me with a slight frown on her forehead. "Here, read it and feel our pain." Together with Hotaru, I did what she said.

* * *

_Chika, Chieko, Chiharu Mori,_

_You are the first ones to give us a great performance._

_You will show us your performance on the stage, near by building 3._

_The date when you have to show us your performance is Thursday, next week._

_Hopefully by then, you are well prepared and ready for your performance._

_We wish you all good luck,_

_The Camp Staff._

* * *

"I wish you luck," Hotaru reacted as soon as she was done with reading. I gave the paper back to Chiharu. "But isn't that a little bit too soon? I mean, you only have one day and one week to practice."

Chieko shook her head calmly. "Nah, not really. Until the performance, we don't have any classes." Hotaru and I looked at her in slight surprise. "Lucky…" I returned.

"Well, now that is done, I gotta go," Sasuke said to get the attention back he first had. Chiharu moaned in disappointment. "Already?" He nodded his head curtly yet simply.

"Awh… Alright."

Just when he wanted to turn his back to us, Chieko stopped him, "Ah.. wait." He did what she said and peered over his shoulder, his eyebrow raised questionably.

She turned to me and Hotaru, slightly sweat dropping. "I forgot to introduce you guys. Sasuke, these two girls are Mikan Sakura and Hotaru Imai."

We nodded our heads one time as a greeting, and I presented him a small and friendly smile.

"And this is Sasuke Kakashi. He's also a third year, like us."

The male only gave us one nod before he shifted his attention back on Chieko. "Can I go now?" When she nodded, he walked away in a nonchalant manner.

I snorted softly, slightly frowning. "He's rude." Chika shrugged, sighing softly. "Tell me about it."

"Isn't he the son of the owner of Camp Ogakku?" Hotaru suddenly asked, making me stare at her with my eyebrows raised. The three nodded their heads at the same time as their answer, a smile presented on their faces.

"Seriously?" I exclaimed and turned to the black-haired female. "How did you know?"

"His last name," she said matter-of-factly, her arms crossed.

"Oh…" I only let them hear and turned my attention on him, watching him slowly disappearing out of my sight, a small frown on my forehead; now why did I got a feeling that told me I needed to be careful when I was around him?

* * *

Sam – Maybe that idea of Reo being the father of Chika, Chieko and Chiharu is gonna be true; it makes sense with the story they told about their parents. Also, this won't be the last time you'll hear and see Sasuke: you're gonna see him a lot, trust me, and he isn't really going to make it easy for Mikan. And with Natsume…? Hmm, you'll need to read the next chapter to find out. ^^

Please review and don't flame.

Much love,  
Unknown Pain.


	6. The Challenge

**Written by –** Unknown Pain.  
**Disclaimer –** Disclaimed.

**The Beat of Love**

"_Music is my soul, my life, I can't live without it. Without music, life would be a mistake." _

-Unknown Pain-

* * *

**-Chapter VI – The Challenge-**

I sighed while resting my chin on my hand, grumbling something under my breath afterwards.

Hotaru turned her attention to me and gave me a dry look, her eyebrow raised. "What's wrong with you?"

"I'm irritated," I said honestly, my forehead pushed into a frown.

"Just because they don't have school?"

I immediately nodded my head and faced her, my eyebrows slightly raised. "Yeah! They can sleep in and don't have to do homework. No school. It's like a dream come true!" I really was jealous of the three Mori's; they didn't have to go to follow the classes because they had to think about their performance.

I grumbled something under my breath again and hoped that my turn would come soon.

Hotaru narrowed her eyes at me. "And now you're irritating _me_,"

I sat up, presenting the female a glare. "Well, I'm sorry!" I spat. She just rolled her emotionless eyes away from me. "You better be."

Right after our small quarrel, the door swung open. Just when I thought it was the teacher, the gang of jerks stepped nonchalantly into the classroom; Natsume walked in the front, of course.

Mochu and Koko both looked around with their usual, mischievous, confident and amused smirks plastered on their faces. The chocolate-brown eyes of the one with the dirty blonde hair turned to me, and it didn't take long before he waved at me as though we were good friends.

I blinked and looking away quickly.

My reaction made both the males chuckle in amusement and then, soon after that, they followed the other two guys to their seats.

All of a sudden, I felt a piercing gaze stabbing my back painfully. With a confused frown, I turned my head to the back only seeing that it was Cho glaring daggers at me. She obviously hadn't forgiven me yet about what happened to her yesterday.

"Please protect me from their evil deeds, Hotaru…" I murmured to her while my gaze was still on the girl with the long, black hair.

She only looked back at me from the sideways of her eyelashes, not really interested, before she turned her attention somewhere else.

"Hello class," Ms. Serina called to gain our attention. "I'm sorry that I'm late; I had some important things I had to do before I could come here." She ran her fingers through her loose hair while I leaned my head against my hand. "Good thing we can start our lesso—"

The door suddenly rudely swung open and a boy with spiky, crimson hair and blood-shed eyes walked into the classroom as though he didn't do anything wrong.

As soon as he took the first steps into the room, the soft whispers could already be heard.

I frowned a little while lifting my head slightly to the left; wasn't that the boy I met a day ago?

Serina her sharp eyes slowly turned to his direction, annoyance written all over her face. "Sasuke Kakashi, the son of Kei Kakashi, _finally_ shows up to class and then he's also _late_," She crossed her arms in front of her chest strictly. "And why is Sasuke Kakashi here so suddenly?"

Sasuke was showing nothing else than a bored and calm expression, not giving a damn about anything. "I was bored," he told her casually.

That explained everything: yesterday Chieko, Chika and Chiharu told me about Sasuke and it looked like they weren't overreacting.

They told me that he only went to school if he was bored and had nothing else to do. He's a third year, a bad boy and he never got in trouble because he's the son of the camp owner.

Serina shook her head as she let out a deep sigh. She massaged her forehead with her two fingers. "Ah… Well, it doesn't matter. Please, go to your seat, Mr. Kakashi."

See?

The dangerous-looking eyes of the male rolled away from her and, surprisingly, he did what he was told; he sat down on an empty seat at the back of the classroom.

Everyone had their attention to him, but he was acted like he didn't even notice; he just sat there with his feet on his desk and his arms crossed, not making any eye contact with us.

I noticed that Natsume was the only one who had his eyes turned to the front. I raised my eyebrow slightly in confusion when I saw how irritated he looked.

"What's wrong?" I dared to ask him. I had to expect to only receive a dark glare of him that told me to shut up. "Mind your own business."

I frowned and rolled my eyes away from him, turning around so he'd only see my back. "I can't help that I was worried about you."

"What?"

I stiffened and quickly shook my head. "Uhh… nothing, nothing."

* * *

I grunted when I placed my hands on my eyes as I turned my attention to the bright light of the sun.

"Tch… it's so hot," Hotaru grumbled lowly under her breath and ran her fingers through her short locks.

I nodded curtly in agreement and we both let out a frustrated sigh.

It was already twelve o'clock and the bell had just rung to signal us that it was time for lunch break. Hotaru and I were sitting in the shadows that the sakura tree gave us, not in the mood to do anything else.

"I'm bored," I moaned to break the annoying silence that popped up between us. Hotaru gave me a blunt look. "Then do something."

"I would if it wasn't so hot…"

"Oi, idiot."

I widened my eyes upon hearing that voice, recognizing it immediately. After Hotaru and I both exchanged looks, we turned to the direction where that voice came from, seeing Natsume, Koko, Mochu and Ruka sitting on the highest trunk of the tree.

"Good-looking jerk!" I greeted with a yell, my eyes began to narrow. "How long have you been sitting there?"

The male shrugged nonchalantly. "Long enough to get annoyed by hearing you complain," Koko and Mochu started to chuckle in amusement while Ruka just looked at us in silence.

I glared and, together with Hotaru, stood up. "You were _eavesdropping_ on us?"

Natsume raised his raven brow. "It isn't my fault that we were here earlier than you."

"That's your excuse?"

"What are _you_ two doing here?" Koko started to ask us, leaning a little bit forward. "It's our tree so you don't even have the right to be here." Hotaru and I both raised our eyebrows in surprise upon hearing such stupid thing.

"Since when?" I questioned back.

"Since the day we came to this camp, you moron," Mochu responded, rolling his grey eyes away from us.

Hotaru crossed her arms in front of her chest, her forehead furrowed. "Do you have any proof?"

Koko blinked. "What do you—?"

"I don't see your names anywhere on the tree."

"So…? That doesn't mean—"

"As long as you don't have something to claim this tree with, it doesn't belong to anyone."

Koko snorted when he couldn't think of something to say. Noticing that, she smirked in victory.

Natsume snorted too, and he flipped his bangs backwards to present us his rare and beautiful eyes. "Still, that doesn't change the fact that we're getting irritated because of you." He put his nose slightly in the air, looking at us with an easy yet calm expression. "So scram."

"We actually need to tell you that," Hotaru pointed out easily, not planning to lose.

I nodded, placing my hands on my hips. "That's right; go away yourself!"

"We were here first!" the dirty blond haired lad threw back. Mochu nodded his head to support him. "There are plenty of other trees that'll let you sit in the shade."

"And there are plenty of other trees to _sit_ in." I returned immediately with a deep frown of irritation.

Natsume shook his head at what he was seeing and placed his foot on the trunk out of boredom, his arm resting on it.

"Natsume," Ruka suddenly muttered and shifted his eyes to somewhere. His eyebrows were slightly furrowed as though he saw something unpleasant. "Look who's coming."

Natsume raised his eyebrow questionable and followed the index finger from the blonde. His eyes stopping on something and right after that, his look darkened extremely.

We all turned our attention to where the two boys had their gazes on. It was a surprise that Sasuke headed to us in a calm pace.

"What are you doing here…?" was the raven-haired male his greet, his voice deeper than usual. Sasuke raised his eyebrow at that easily, not feeling threatened at all. "I missed you too,"

Natsume narrowed his eyes. "Die."

The other male smirked and folded his arms nonchalantly, his blood-shed eyes still turned to the crimson ones. "If I die, I'm taking you with me."

"I'm going to ask again," Natsume returned. "What are you doing here when you know that you don't even belong here?"

Sasuke shrugged. "I'm just here to tell you that that Hibiki girl is trying to get into your room."

The four guys raised their eyebrows at the exact same time, surprised. "What are you talking about?" Ruka questioned him slowly.

"Are you talking about Cho?" Sasuke turned his attention over to me and nodded curtly.

"Why is she trying to get into Natsume's and Ruka's room?" Koko started to ask too.

Sasuke shrugged again, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Let's just say that she's looking for something."

"Something like what?" Mochu narrowed his eyes in irritation.

"A manga."

"_My _manga…?" Natsume only grew more irritated with the second. Sasuke nodded simply. "I told her the classic story about that you'll like her if she told you that she'd found the manga."

"Bastard."

The red-eyed teen shrugged. "I told you that I'd get you back, didn't I?"

I blinked. "Get back for what?" I blurted out before I could stop myself. Without moving his head, he shifted his gaze back on me. "For what they did last week."

Hotaru raised her black eyebrow. "Like…?" Sasuke turned his eyes back to the other guys and frowned in annoyance, making Koko sigh loudly. "Oh, come on!" he exclaimed with his forehead furrowed. "It was just a _joke_!"

"Making sure that Sora would find me and bring me back to my father just to get me into trouble…? That is your joke? Well, I can't laugh about it."

"But we could."

"Yeah… but he who laughs last, laughs best," Sasuke presented them a mischievous smirk, his eyebrow slightly raised.

Natsume hn'ed and jumped off the trunk. He landed next to me, causing me to jump in surprise. Ignoring my reaction, he walked to the other male.

When they stood in front of each other, I felt the atmosphere change drastically, the silence surrounding us as the two just glowered at each other silently, their looks screaming trouble.

There had to be something that happened between the two in their past.

"You haven't changed," Natsume said after a small moment of silence. "After all these years you still have that pathetic look on your face that tells that you're afraid to being left alone, of being forgotten and hated," Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the words that rolled out of Natsume's mouth. "And you're still failing to hide it."

"Like you're the one to talk," the son of the owner immediately retorted in an angry voice. "You still have that idiotic mask to hide your true face, feelings and weaknesses. Oh and, don't worry, I still can see in your eyes that you still don't know how to handle these things about your mother's death."

Natsume growled deep inside his throat but huffed afterwards. He looked away and brushed his fingers through his messy hair in a cool manner. "Whatever." He passed the other male, making sure their shoulders touches each other rudely, and made a hand wave to his friends that they had to come too.

The three jumped off the tree at the exact same time, walking after him (Koko was the only one who ran). "Where are we going?" the lad asked as soon as caught up with their leader.

Natsume shoved his hands calmly into his jean pockets, his face still dark. "To our dorm."

"Good luck," Sasuke said, peering over his shoulder. Natsume did the same. "I will; don't forget to tell your parents 'hi' for me in hell,"

I saw Sasuke's jaw tightening but he still kept the same look on his face. "I will, and don't worry; I won't forget to visit your mom when I get there." As that was said, Natsume turned his face back forward as though he didn't give a damn what Sasuke just said.

Hotaru and I just looked at the crimson-haired one in silence, not knowing what to say.

He raised his eyebrow questionably when he caught our looks. "What are you two looking at…? He obviously was in a bad mood through what just had happened.

"You really don't like each other, do you?" I questioned him, shaking my head in the meantime. He answered with a nonchalant shrug.

"Mikan, Hotaru!" we suddenly heard and turned our attention to the three Mori's who walked to us. Chiharu waved at us cheerfully. I waved back with a kind smile. "Hey!"

They blinked when they saw Sasuke and halted their steps as they stood behind him. "Sasuke…?" the oldest Mori began. "What are you doing here?"

"Nothing," he replied easily.

Her expression didn't change. "Right."

Hotaru folded her arms in front of her chest. "More importantly, what are you doing here? Don't you have to practice or something…?" I nodded my head in agreement.

Chika frowned a bit cockily. "We deserve a break, too, you know?"

"And we thought you'd like our company," Chiharu smiled one of her bright smiles. I presented her a smile back. "Don't worry, we do."

Sasuke let out a sudden sigh and rubbed the back of his head in slightly annoyance. He decided to walk away.

Chieko immediately shifted her attention to him. "Hey, where are you going?" she asked him as he wanted to pass her.

He looked at her calmly. "Somewhere."

"Like?"

"I don't know; somewhere where I can rest."

She furrowed her eyebrows in disappointment. "So… you won't come to our room to help us anymore…?" Sasuke gave her a bit of a surprised look before a cool yet calming smirk touched his thin lips. "I never said that, did I?" he returned and touched her forehead softly with his index finger.

I watched carefully the way she blushed at his look and actions.

Chieko swallowed thickly, shifting her pink eyes away from him. She made sure that her eyes were covered by her bangs. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously; could it be…?

As Chiharu waved and said goodbye to him, he left.

Right after we had enough distance of him, Chika locked her attention back on us, her brown eyebrow slightly raised. "Seriously, what was he doing here?"

Hotaru brushed her fingers through her tomboyish hair. "He played a prank on Kitty-Cat and his friends, and he wanted to 'warn' them."

Chiharu placed a loose strand of hair behind her right ear. "Natsume and Sasuke obviously started a quarrel, right?"

I nodded my head twice. "Yeah. They were mocking each other about who had changed and who not. Sasuke started about Natsume's mother—" I halted my words and blinked thrice, suddenly getting curious. "What… actually had happened with his mother? Did she die or something?"

Chieko cleared her throat and scratched her left side of her cheek. "Well… his mother died when he was still a little kid."

I couldn't help but to feel bad for him. "Must be hard for him," I muttered, my voice a bit lower than first. The girl standing next to me nodded. "It is, although he's not showing it."

I leaned back against the sakura tree. "So he actually has a heart, huh…?" I murmured almost to myself and, surprisingly, felt the butterflies in my stomach again.

Hotaru frowned. "I never said that. And so what if he does? He's still a jerk and don't forget the promise you made."

I looked at her in silence and suddenly started to find that thought of him having a caring and sweet side stupid; I couldn't really imagine him having that anyway. Through that it didn't take long before the creatures in my stomach disappeared.

I smiled a small smile. "Yeah, yeah. Don't worry."

* * *

"DRAMA QUEEN!" I shouted with full anger. My hands curled into fists as I shot a scowl at Cho who was standing in front of her three friends, not far away from where I was standing.

Seeing that smirk of hers made me wish that my looks could kill her right away.

Her thin eyebrow raised innocently, her arms in front of her chest. "What?" she returned.

I growled deep inside my throat, having the urge to smack her right then and there. I pushed my wet locks, that stickled on my face, backwards. "Do… you even know how _cold_ that fucking water _is_?"

"I really don't know what you're talking about, Sakura." She threw the empty bucket that first was filled with water behind her, making it worse.

I gritted my teeth while I was insulting her the best I could in my thoughts; Dancing class had just ended and me and Hotaru were heading back to our room, deciding to go straight to our homework. As we neared the third building, we saw suddenly that spoiled girl with her three followers, Cho holding the bucket.

We just passed her as though we didn't saw her but as we did, Cho took one step closer to me and turned the bucket upside down as fast, letting the ice cold water, with ice cubes in it, fall on me.

Hotaru and I were surrounded with a lot of students who were curious of what happened or what was going to happen to me and her.

I sneezed as I felt the fresh wind touching my skin, making Cho and her Cheerleaders laugh in amusement.

"Oi, idiots, was that really necessary…?" Hotaru asked them in a low voice, her forehead furrowed. Cho flipped her hair over her shoulder, her smirk still plastered on her face. "Of course. Especially after what she did to _me_," Her cocky look changed into anger.

"WHAT? When?" I almost exploded to her. Cho narrowed her snow eyes. "Yesterday!" she threw back. "You threw fucking worms with soda on me!"

"You deserved it!"

"And _you_ deserved this!" The female took a deep breath to control herself again and crossed her arms over her chest. She even started to snicker like an evil fox. "And trust me, I've got more."

I wanted to yell at her once again but just when I had my mouth open, a hand appeared on my shoulder.

My eyes widened in surprise when it was Natsume who stood behind me together with the other three males. Some of the students who were surrounding us (girls, that is) started to whisper and giggle at seeing the raven-haired male.

"Ugh, what the hell did you do…? You're wet," I blushed in embarrassment at the last sentence he said before clearing my throat. I pointed to the spoiled girl. "That bitch over there threw water on me."

He eyed her calmly. Cho her mischievous expression changed as soon as his crimson eyes stopped on hers, and the girl started to wave at him shyly, already blushing. "H-hi.. Natsume."

Then he turned his attention back on me, showing that he wasn't in any way interested in her. "You're really stupid."

My eyebrows raised upon hearing that, soon furrowing my forehead. He removed his hand from my shoulder. "What…?" I returned slowly. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"That you got fooled by her," he told me in his usual emotionless voice. "Now I know why you never win against me."

"Excuse me?" I narrowed my eyes angrily. "We have never challenged each other or whatsoever, so what makes you think that I can't win against you?"

"Because you always get fooled by the stupidest hag I've ever seen," I turned away from him, grunting a soft "humph" under my breath so he wouldn't hear. "Not always," I mumbled in return, slightly feeling stupid.

"Oi, Natsume, challenge her," Koko suggested with his usual, playful smirk as he placed his hand on the said male's shoulder; Natsume only looked at him sideways through his eyelids.

My eyes widened again. "What?" I cooed, my voice a bit higher. "Challenge me? Why would he do that?"

How did it turn out like this?

"Why not?" Koko returned easily. "You want to know who's better, right? Then this is the perfect way to find out."

Mochu tapped his chin with his index finger thoughtfully. "Sounds interesting."

The dirty-haired one rolled his dark eyes away. "Dude, that's because this _is_ interesting!"

"What's the challenge then?" Hotaru asked suddenly with her arms folded in front of her chest.

"It's simple: fool each other ten times and the one who reaches that number first is the winner." Koko told us, his smirk even wider than before; he was really excited about it.

"And what would happen if Mikan loses?"

I snapped my face towards her direction, staring at her in horror. "Hey! I've never said I would even accept this!" Unfortunately, she simply just ignored me.

Mochu shrugged a bit in a nonchalant way. "Don't kno—"

"Who said I would even go with such idiotic idea?" I interrupted him, annoyance dripping from my voice. "Like _hell_ I want to have such challenge with you while there's another crazy person walking around the camp trying to make my life a living hell! So no, thank you."

Koko gasped, faking to be shocked at what I just said. "Oh no, did you hear that?" He turned his attention over to the blonde male who stood next to him, already laughing. "Ruka, she's scared!"

Ruka just shrugged in a no-caring way. "Just let her do what she wants; you can't force her to do this, you know?" I smiled at him, relieved that he was actually standing up for me, and nodded my head quickly in agreement. "Yeah, what he says!"

Natsume just looked at me in silence, his expression still dry and emotionless. I blinked my eyes at him and furrowed a brow. "Y-you… don't really plan on challenging me, right…?"

He shrugged. "Maybe," I frowned in return, not wanting to hear that.

"But, dude, we really need to think of what would happen if someone loses," Koko continued, his eyes to the almost black-haired Mochu, hoping that he would have an idea.

I bit my lip while the bald-headed guy didn't know how to respond to what Koko said; I really didn't want to be in this. My life here would even be more irritating if I'd accept that challenge.

"If I lose," I began my sentence, having a small idea in my head of how to escape from this. Everyone turned their attention to me, waiting silently for me to continue. "I'll kiss you."

Everyone stared at me, trying to figure out if I was joking or serious about it; I smirked at it.

I was hoping that Natsume would shook his head, frown in disgust, and blow the whole thing off. But when I heard him saying that, my stomach turned from nervousness and shock, "Fine,"

"'Fine?'" everyone echoed, not believing what he said.

"W-what…?" I breathed and took a step back.

Natsume raised his eyebrow and crossed his arms easily yet calmly. "The winner gets a kiss from the loser; fine by me."

I swallowed loudly, gaping at him in disbelief; oh my God, what did I do?

* * *

Sam – Mikan isn't really making it easy for herself, is she...? And yes, Natsume and Sasuke know each other from the past and a lot of things happened between them that they rather don't talk about. You'll read about that soon in the future chapters.

Hope you all liked it and please review!

Much love,  
Unknown Pain


	7. Round One

**Written by –** Unknown Pain.  
**Disclaimer –** There's a new member of the group: Sora Nakajima! :D

**The Beat of Love**

"_Music is my soul, my life, I can't live without it. Without music, life would be a mistake." _

-Unknown Pain-

* * *

**-Chapter VII – Round One-**

Sighing, I heard the rain clashing against my window.

I stood up from my bed and walked to the closet, opened it, and stared at my clothes. After staring at them for like ten seconds, I finally chose for a white t-shirt with cherry blossoms patterns at the hem and dark blue skinny jeans.

I threw them all on my bed and started to unbutton a few buttons of my pajama shirt.

I halted my actions as someone knocked on my door. "No." I said curtly and continued with unbuttoning.

"Are you done changing yet?" Hotaru asked me in an impatient voice and I could already sense her frown of irritation. "No," I answered casually and threw the pajama shirt on the floor, grabbing my t-shirt.

"Hurry up." I eyed the clock and started to frown. "It's only seven o'clock _in the morning_. Why the hurry?"

"I'm hungry."

I rolled my eyes while I threw the pajama pants on the shirt, and grabbed my skinny jeans. "You're always hungry; have you ever thought of going to the doctor?"

"Shut it. Hurry up or I'll leave without you." The black-haired female growled from the other side of the door and her footsteps faded away.

My eyebrow raised; she probably didn't get enough sleep.

I made my way to the bathroom and turned on the water tap, plashing some cold water on my face to wake me up. After drying my face with a towel, I put on slight some makeup, combed my hair, and left the bathroom.

"Done yet?" I scowled at the door as though it was the one who said that. "Not yet! Geez, stop complaining!"

I heard Hotaru mumbling something (insults probably), but ignored it easily.

I turned my attention to the floor. "Where the hell are my shoes?" I asked myself, scratching the back of my head as I tried to best I could to remember where I had put them.

After three minutes of walking and looking around, I finally found one, lying near the door. The second one lay near my window. After I had them both on, I sighed in relief.

The sound of the rain still clashed against my window, as though it wanted to break through the glass. I automatically turned my gaze to it, placing my arms on the window-sill.

The sky looked very gloomy and everywhere I looked was cold and damp. There was no bird who made a sound: everything was silent and deserted.

The rain had always composed me, no matter what; it always reminded me of many things: the good but also the bad things. Mostly the good, though.

All of a sudden, the face of my mother flashed through my mind and sorrow appeared inside of me; I really missed her. It felt like I hadn't seen her for years and couldn't wait to embrace her again.

I let out a small shriek of shock when a hand appeared on my shoulder and turned to see who it was. I calmed down when I saw that it was Hotaru. "Oh, hey."

The female still gave me an irritated look. "Don't tell me you're still not—" Her thin eyebrow raised at me questionably. "What's wrong?"

I eyed her for a small moment and then turned my attention back to the window. "I'm fine," I told her in a soft voice, not wanting to make her worried.

"How many times do I have to tell you that you can't lie to me?" she returned with a blunt look on her face. "Tell me what's wrong."

I sighed. "It's just that I'm a little bit concerned about my mother."

"You miss her?"

"Yeah… A lot, actually."

"When was the last time you spoke to each other, then?"

"Two weeks ago or something?"

Hotaru looked at me in a slight cocky way. "Have you ever thought of calling her?"

This was making me feel even worse and I swallowed my dry throat, biting the insides of my left cheek in the meantime. "N-not really… and I was busy as well."

Hotaru crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Maybe she's busy, too."

"Maybe," I said through a sigh and placed my chin on my arms, not wanting to remove my gaze from the crying sky yet.

Hotaru leaned with her back against the window-sill, her emotionless eyes locked on me. "Why don't you call her in the afternoon or tonight? I'm sure that there's nothing to worry about."

I nodded my head and closed my eyes. "Hope so…"

* * *

"I'm not feeling safe here," I mumbled under my breath, just loud enough for Hotaru to hear. She watched me burying my head in my arms while sipping from her glass of cold milk. "Reason...?"

Without saying something, I pointed to the table in front of us where Natsume and his three friends were sitting, and Cho and her followers' table that stood behind us.

Yes, we were sitting _between_ them.

She gave a nod as she knew what I was talking about. "I see," she said in her usual deep voice.

"I really have a feeling that they're going to throw something at me any minute," I grumbled, my head still in my arms.

I sensed Hotaru rolling her amethyst eyes away from me. "It's your own fault. Why did you accept such an idiotic and lame challenge with him, anyway…? You could also say 'no' and walk away with your nose in the air."

"He thinks I'm weak and that he's going to win," I replied and slightly looked up to glance at the one we were talking about. "I just want to show him that he's wrong."

"With a challenge? Just so you know, there are a lot of other ways to do so." She wasn't making me feel any better, "I know, I know," I sighed. "But I can't go back now, right?"

Hotaru let out some air between her lips and finished her milk. "If he wins, you have to kiss him." I stiffened. "Why did you bring that up, anyway?"

I looked at her with my eyes wide. "I thought he'd back out!"

"Well, he didn't," Hotaru returned dryly, her gaze turned to the four males. "It looks like he's more interested in it than ever."

I immediately nodded my head in agreement. "Yeah! Do you know why?" She shrugged for a split second. "Beats me."

I turned my attention over to them and as soon as Natsume caught my gaze, he said, "Oi,"

My eyebrows raised questionable, wondering what he wanted. "Are you a good kisser?"

I gaped at him for asking me such thing. "E-excuse me…?"

Koko laughed. "He wants to know if you're good at kissing or not,"

I felt a blush creeping over my cheeks, frowning deeply. "W-what?" I breathed. "Why do you wanna know?"

His blunt yet emotionless expression didn't change. "I want to know if it's worth doing this challenge; if you kiss like a toothless grandma, I'll blow the whole thing off."

I automatically glared at him, my face still being red. "H-how the hell am I supposed to know that? I don't think so…" I realized that this was my way to escape and smiled at him with my eyes closed. "So I think it's for the best we keep it a draw."

Natsume's short brow bounced up. After some seconds of silence, he ran his fingers through his messy locks. "Never mind, I already figured it out on my own."

I blinked. "Huh?"

I watched in silence how he stabbed his spoon in his pudding and hold the front with his two fingers, pointed to me.

Hotaru already moved away from me, leaving me behind, while I widened my eyes as I realized what he wanted to do. As some kind of defense, I shook my head slowly. "No…"

He looked with a cocky expression, a seductive yet amusing smirk curved on his thin lips. "You just made it more interesting." And right after that I felt the cold and disgusting-feeling liquid on my face, causing me to gasp in shock.

"Ew!" I automatically yelled, standing up while wiping the pudding away.

In the meantime, the attention turned to me, the canteen growing silent.

I glowered the best that I could at the four males and hoped one of them would die because of it. "You bastard!" I growled loudly, blushing of embarrassment. "What the hell?"

Natsume just hn'ed casually and then stood up from his chair, ready to leave the canteen in a calm manner. Ruka, Mochu and Koko obviously followed him and of course Mochu and Koko laughed, making jokes about it.

"This really is going to be fun," Koko snickered while the almost bald-headed male next to him nodded his head in agreement. "Natsume has already one point so I'm pretty sure he's going to win."

I watched them leave, gaping. This was unbelievable, really!

Hotaru sighed. She shook her head in an unpleasant way and turned her gaze to me. "Congratulations, you just made it worse."

Darn it!

* * *

"Ms. Sakura, you're late!" Serina's strict voice echoed through my ears even before I could close the door of the classroom behind me.

I sighed when I eyed her, preparing myself for the big scolding she'd threw at me.

"You're ten minutes late," the adult began as she glanced at her watch. "I hope you have a good explanation for this." Her sharp eyes shifted back to my amber ones, waiting for me to tell my excuse of coming late.

"I just… forgot the time," I answered a bit in a nonchalant tone, my voice a bit soft, as I turned my head away.

She rolled her eyes away, her hands on her hips. "And I thought you'd even try to think of a good excuse," I just kept my mouth shut.

She shook her head in an unpleasant way and sighed. "Detention after school." My eyes widened immediately after the last word. "What? Only for that?"

Serina simply nodded her head twice.

"That doesn't even make—"

"I don't care. Detention is detention. I don't want to say any word more about it. Go to your seat and I don't want to hear you again." She cut me off strictly, her eyes narrowing warningly.

I pouted in protest, but did what she told me to do anyway.

I glared at Natsume who wasn't paying any attention: his chin was resting on his hand palm with his eyes closed. I couldn't believe that Serina let him sleep like that in peace while I had detention just because I was ten minutes late, which was also his fault with all the pudding that I had to wash off and everything.

With the same irritated and dark expression, I sat with one plop down on my seat, refusing to stop pouting.

Hotaru glanced at me from her eye corners. "I can't believe I'm friends with an idiot,"

I glanced back at her with eyes narrowed darkly, my head unmoved; I was so not in the mood for this. "Thank you for helping me, I really appreciate it."

Her black eyebrow raised immediately yet easily. "You were the one who came late."

I groaned deep inside my throat. "Like it's my fault," I hissed through my teeth to make sure our teacher wouldn't catch me. I pointed behind me. "If that bastard didn't throw pudding at me, I wouldn't have needed to take a shower."

"Don't blame me for your stupid actions." I faced the back to glower at the male who just looked back at me boringly through half-closed eyelids. "It was your fault, you jerk! If you think you can win from me then—"

"Ms. Sakura!" I stiffened and slowly shifted my attention back to the teacher "Y-yes…?"

"Do you wish for two weeks of detention?" I immediately shook my head.

Serina gave me a cocky look, one of her hands on her hips. "Then I suppose you'll start paying attention." I answered with a quick nod and the woman turned her back to the class again, continuing writing things on the blackboard.

I took a deep breath before exhaling it, my forehead deeply furrowed of the anger as I turned my head back to Natsume who still was looking at me with his emotionless expression like he didn't give a damn. "I swear," I began. "I'm going to get you back."

He curled one of his lip corners up in an amused and cool smirk. "Can't wait."

* * *

It was finally time for lunch break, my most favorite part of the day.

I leaned against the sakura tree, looking up at the sky; the rain had stopped half an hour ago and the sun was shining brightly again.

I was waiting for Hotaru to come with our lunches. Wondering where she could be, I wiped the hair in front of my face away as the wind began to blow, watching the other students crowding the whole place with their trays filled with food in their hands.

It didn't take long before Natsume and his gang caught my attention. I started to frown and turned my gaze elsewhere.

The door of the canteen opened and just when I thought Hotaru would step outside, Cho and her friends ran after the four males.

I shook my head in disbelief and turned my attention to the canteen again, staring at it while hoping Hotaru would step out of it any second. But even after a long moment, there was still no sign of her.

I got annoyed when I thought she had forgotten about me, while I really said I'd be at the sakura tree, waiting for her.

I sighed and threw my head back with my eyes closed, slightly moaning in irritation. After a small second I opened them again and blinked when I saw a figure sitting on the lowest trunk.

I frowned because I couldn't see exactly who it was so I leaned forward, with my face still turned up; spiky, crimson hair… blood-shed eyes… I widened my eyes in surprise, "Sasuke?"

The said-male turned his face down to see who called his name. When our eyes met, he raised his eyebrow in a cool yet questionable way. "And you are…?"

"Mikan...?" I answered, my voice a bit higher of the surprise I felt when he didn't even remember me after such a short time. "You know… I was with Chika, Chieko and Chiharu that day?"

"Oh." He turned his eyes forward again; it wasn't that hard to see that I wasn't really interesting to him. I slightly pouted in insult, before I asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Hiding from someone," Sasuke's calm and slight-emotionless expression didn't change.

I furrowed a brow. "From who?"

He made a sign with his finger that I had to come. And even with a confused look, I stood up and did what he said.

As soon as I sat beside him, he pointed at a person that wasn't far from where we were. The person looked around as though he was in a hurry, his face turned quickly to different directions.

He yelled as loud as he could Sasuke's name, searching behind a tree as he did so.

"Who is _that_?" I asked when I stared at that unknown person as though it was some weird being.

Sasuke's dark eyebrows started to frown in irritation. "An annoying person who doesn't want to leave me alone." Then he began to growl deep inside his throat as he realized that that unknown man was heading to our direction. "Damn, he's coming this way…"

We eyed each other. "Make yourself useful and keep him away from me." My eyebrow raised in an arrogant way, not believing what he just said. "Are you kidding me?"

"Do I look like I'm kidding?"

I frowned deeply. "I'm not going to do that; it's your problem, not mine." He shrugged. "Even if I'm asking for your help…?"

I rolled my eyes away. "Asking? You _demanded_ me to help you. If you ask nicely, maybe I will," I curved my lips into a small, amusing smirk.

Sasuke sighed and then stood up, ignoring my questionable look that I was throwing at him. "Ah well. Good luck." And before I could do something, he jumped backwards off the trunk, hiding behind the tree itself.

"Hey!" I yelled after him, glaring as darkly as possible. "You—!"

"Ah, little girl…?"

I stiffened and immediately halted my words. I turned my attention over to that guy who was looking for Sasuke and presented him a sweet smile. "Y-yes...?"

The adult smiled back. "I'm looking for a boy around your age; spiky, crimson hair and with piercing, dark red eyes... Did you, by any chance, see him?"

I sighed a deep sigh, just letting have Sasuke's way, "Uhmm… No, I'm sorry." The male let out some air of disappointment, brushing his fingers through his short, well-combed, brown hair. "I see…" He then cleared his throat and presented me a smile again. "Thank you, anyway."

"You're welcome."

Sasuke slowly appeared again as that guy left, continuing the search for him.

He looked up at me, not feeling intimidated or whatever at the way I glared at him. "So you can make yourself useful, huh?" I didn't like a thing about his smirk that he showed me out of amusement.

"That wasn't funny!" I threw back, making him chuckle; I narrowed my gaze. "Stop that, really."

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Do people laugh at you often…?"

I blinked. "What has that to do with anything?" Sasuke shook his head, blowing the locks that didn't contain any hair gel away in front of his eyes. "Nothing, never mind."

"Alright then… Who was that?" I asked instead to change the subject back into what we first were talking about. The male sighed and rubbed the back of his neck in a slight irritated way. "Sora Nakajima; he's working for my father. His job is to make sure I stay out of trouble."

I gave him a surprised look. "Seriously?" He nodded. "Are you that much of a problem child?"

Sasuke shot me a glare, his crimson eyebrows deeply furrowed. "Shut it. It's not my fault they can't handle me."

It took me a while to say something back; what was this sudden change of personality?

I snapped back in reality as soon as Sasuke gave me a questionable look, obviously wondering why I was staring at him like that.

I quickly cleared my throat in a bit awkward way, feeling a blush of embarrassment touching my cheeks, before I said, "What… do you mean 'it's not your fault'?"

"Just like I'm saying."

"Do you enjoy being followed by a man like a lost puppy?"

Sasuke shoved his hands into his jean pockets, giving a cocky look. "No. I enjoy being better and smarter than them." I lifted my head a bit to the side, not quite following him. "'Them'…?"

The lad gave me two short nods. "My father, Sora, all the other adults…"

I rolled my eyes away from him, finding it stupid what he just said. "Just because they can't catch you doesn't mean you're better at them," I pointed out, ignoring the way he frowned at me in annoyance. "Don't forget that your father is the owner of this music camp."

"So?" Sasuke returned. He watched me climbing carefully out of the tree. "That doesn't mean anything."

"Don't tell me you haven't noticed how the teachers never dare to punish you."

His irritation grew. "Of course I've noticed, but like I care." I crossed my arms in front of my chest, presenting him a cocky look with my thin eyebrow slightly raised. "You really don't care about a lot, do you? Maybe if you stop acting like you can say whatever you want and act tough, I'm sure a lot more people would like you."

Sasuke narrowed his gaze dangerously at me, as though he was warning me that I have reached the line. He took a step closer to me to look more intimidating; my lips parted out of surprise when he did that. "Oi, just so you know: you just met me some days ago, so stop talking like you know every little thing about me, would you...? Because really, _you don't know a thing_; you're just a person who watches me from afar and who's _too_ afraid to come any closer to me."

I just stared at him in silence while he looked back at me with an angry expression, waiting for what I had to say. I swallowed as the things he said got into my head and began to feel guilty.

I took a small step away from him and bit the insides of my cheeks hard, while I faced the green grass. "I-I'm sorry… I didn't want—"

"Sasuke!" We both turned our attention to Chiharu who ran to our direction, her famous smile glued on her pink lips as always.

"Chiharu…?" the said male muttered back. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you, of course!" She halted in front of him, her hands hid behind her back as her innocent smile widened even more.

"I can see that… What is it?"

"We need your help. Well, actually, Chika needs your help with some chords she just can't get right."

Sasuke gave her a blunt look. "Isn't she going to play the bass or something?"

Chiharu nodded simply. "She is, but she also needs to know the chords of the electric guitar through the fact that she's also the one who thinks of the melody of the song. So, do you wanna help us?"

The crimson-haired one shrugged. "Sure, whatever."

The dark blond haired female embraced him immediately after his sentence touched her ears, and surprisingly, he just let her do so. "Great!" She let him go. "Then I'll see you after school in our room, okay?"

Sasuke nodded once as an answer and then her orange eyes shifted to mine. "Hey, Mikan! I… didn't see you…" I sighed before I actually chuckled at her stupidity. "I noticed."

Chiharu giggled with me as she rubbed the back of her neck in an embarrassing way. With a wave goodbye, she walked away.

I watched the way Sasuke shook his head with a small grunt escaping his thin lips. "What is it?" I asked him.

"It's always the same story when it comes to this; I always need to help them." He answered with his gaze still on the back of one of his good friends until she disappeared out of his sight.

"So?" I placed one hand on my hip. "Is that a problem?"

He turned to me, his expression still as calm and straight as ever. "It's getting annoying."

"Then why didn't you say no…?"

Unfortunately, the male didn't answer that question but shifted his eyes away from me instead.

I blinked at his reaction. It took me a while before I finally understood why, and grinned slightly in amusement and mischievousness. "Because you care for them, right?"

Sasuke directly shot me a glare that I had to shut up, but, not feeling threatened or whatsoever, I easily continued, "Awhh, look at that: Sasuke has a soft spot for the three Mori's, how _cute_."

He growled deep and loudly. "Shut it," he snapped in a deep voice, almost through his teeth.

His expression only darkened more when I couldn't hold it anymore and burst into laughter.

He tried to catch me but I just easily stepped away from him, still laughing.

After two times of trying, he finally got a hold on my arm. Ignoring my shriek of surprise, he pulled me towards him.

I automatically backed away with my head a little bit when I noticed that our distance between our faces was small. My eyes were wide through what happened.

He smirked a bit in a proud way for catching me, huffing slightly. "You're still not better than me," I frowned while pouting, swallowing my dry throat silently.

"Mikan!" We both turned our attention to the person who yelled my name. "Oi—" Hotaru halted immediately her steps and words when she saw how I and Sasuke were standing.

Her emotionless face didn't change when she said, "Sorry for interrupting by whatever you two were doing." She immediately turned her back to us again.

"W-what?" I murmured.

Sasuke and I glanced at each other for a split second before I pushed him away. "Ew, no!" I yelled, trying to hide the blush that appeared out of embarrassment. "It's really not what it looks like."

She gave me a dry look, her eyes screaming that she didn't believe me. "Right."

I sighed deeply. "You know, you can at least try to hide the fact that you don't believe me."

Hotaru's thin eyes raised at me simply. "Don't blame me; that pose you two just had told me different things."

Sasuke snorted in an uncaring way, pointing his thumb at me in a nonchalant way. "It was her fault."

I gave him a wide-eyed stare. "You didn't just say that…"

Hotaru put her nose a bit higher in the air, one brow raised suspiciously. "Oh, so you _seduced_ him…?"

"No!" I snapped back, trying the best I could to push that wrong thought of me and him out of her head.

I glared at the male next me. "You're not making it any better, you know."

He shrugged, a smirk curved into his lips. "Good luck," Sasuke said over his shoulder when he took his first steps to leave us, and then walked away.

Hotaru took some steps closer to me. "Unbelievable: first Kitty Cat and then that Dracula… Make a choice, will you?"

I narrowed my amber eyes at the way she shook her head, the anger boiling inside of me. "I'm not even going to comment on that." I tried the best I could not to yell at the way she was doing.

Hotaru saw the expression I was giving her and hn'ed, throwing a paper bag to me that I just could catch between my hands before it'll fall on the ground. "Here."

I blinked. "What is it?"

"Your food."

"Oh…" I opened the bag to see exactly the things I wanted and smiled, the anger disappearing slowly. "Great! Thanks." Hotaru gave me just a nod to say that it wasn't a big deal.

"But… what took you so long?" The female hold up her paper bag. "Crab," I gave her a blunt look. "And that took so long…?"

She nodded. "If you want crab of good quality then yes, it is."

I blurted out a small chuckle, shaking my head twice. "You're unbelievable,"

Hotaru her own lip corners curled up into a tight yet sweet smile, and sat down beside me against the sakura tree. "Thank you. Now, eat it and finish it before lunch break's over."

* * *

I twitched one of my eyes in irritation when that laugh of Spongebob Squarepants ran through my ears. Without a moment to waste, I grabbed the remote control from the couch Chieko was lying on and changed it to another channel.

"Hey, what the hell?" Chieko gave me a glare with her pink eyes narrowed. "I was watching that!"

"Good for you," I returned in a nonchalant tone.

"Mikan!" she continued, eyeing the TV for a small moment before gazing back to me. "Come on."

"Forget it. If I hear that annoying laugh of that yellow creature one more time I'm going _nuts_. Can't you watch it in your own time or something…?"

The orange-haired female scoffed and crossed her arms in front of her chest in defeat. She turning her attention back to the TV with a pout. "Fine. But stop zapping; it's annoying."

I just ignored her and sat back in the brown couch, continuing to find the right channel.

In the meantime, the door opened of the slightly crowded lounge room and Chieko's younger sisters and Hotaru stepped in.

"Hey!" Chiharu greeted us with a beaming smile. "There you are!"

Chieko sat up and presented the three girls a questionable look. "What do you mean 'there you are'? Were you three looking for us then?"

Hotaru gave her a nod before she shifted her amethyst eyes to my direction, her thin eyebrows slightly furrowed in irritation. "Couldn't you tell us that you were here…?"

"Sorry, we forgot," I just said to her in a deep voice, not in the mood to pay much attention to her. Chika sat down on the arm rest of the couch her oldest sister was sitting on. Her eyebrow was slightly raised at the way I reacted. "What is wrong with her?"

Chieko held her shoulders up. "Beats me," Then she gave me an irritated glare as though I didn't saw that. "But she's zapping for five minutes already and _still_ hasn't found a channel she wants to watch yet."

I halted and eyed her. "I can hear you, you know," I retorted. "And if you really wanna know, I'm in a bad mood."

"Why?" Chiharu questioned in a surprised voice.

Not wanting to tell her the slight-embarrassing story, I just shrugged and decided to turn back to the TV. "No reason."

Of course Hotaru had a different opinion about it, "I guess she just came back from detention from Serina."

I glared at her to tell her that she had to shut up, but unfortunately, she ignored it and just presented me an amused smirk back.

"Serina? What did you do then?" Chika asked me. I shrugged and opened my mouth to tell her the reason, but Hotaru cut me off, "She got late in class because of an incident that happened between her and Kitty Cat."

"Natsume?" the three Mori's cooed in unison, not expecting that he'd be a part of the whole thing too.

"Hotaru!" I snapped in a high voice, trying to darken my look even more.

She ignored me simply and wanted to sit next to me. Wanting to get her back for what she did, I quickly placed my legs there, shaking my head a couple of times. "Forget it."

The female gave me an annoyed frown. I just stuck out my tongue at her.

"Wow, wait. What did Natsume do?" Chieko leaned a bit forward, obviously finding the subject interesting; she even probably forgot that she was missing an episode of Spongebob Squarepants.

Hotaru turned around to face the three. "Didn't you know it then? That idiot here has made a challenge with the crimson-eyed male."

"Which is?"

"They have to fool each other ten times; the one who has reached that number first, is the winner. The loser has to _kiss_ the winner."

The three females stared at Hotaru to find out if she was serious. After a long moment of silence, their eyes shifted at the exact same time to me; I just looked away, sweat dropping and trying my best to hide the blush of embarrassment.

"You've got to be kidding me…" Chika muttered.

"How the hell was I supposed to know that he was serious and would accept the whole thing?" I immediately returned, my voice a little bit higher.

Hotaru rolled her eyes away from me. "It seems he's pretty serious about it."

I just moaned in frustration, acting like the world was going to end any time soon.

"Can't you just blow it off or do your best or something?" Chiharu suggested, but even she wasn't sure herself.

"It wouldn't really matter; the end result would still be the same." Hotaru gave me a matter-of-factly look. "Unfortunately, this girl here, who I'm surprisingly friends with, hasn't thought of that yet."

I sighed deeply and looked up at the clock that hang at the wall behind Chieko, Chika and Chiharu: almost six o'clock.

I stood up slowly and without even saying something, I made my way to the door.

"Where are you going?" Chieko questioned and turned her head to the back, her orange eyebrows raised in confusion.

"Outside," I said curtly and opened the door. "Maybe my mother's voice would cheer me up a bit."

"But don't you want to grab something to eat first?" Chiharu asked with a worried glint in her orange eyes.

I shook my head. "I'm not ready to die yet," I said bluntly and left the lounge room, with them following me out of it.

* * *

My back was pressed against the trunk of a tree that stood not far away from the canteen and dialed the number of my mother her phone. I pressed it against my ear and sighed, brushing my fingers through my hair until I heard my mother's voice, _"Hello?"_

I smiled. "Hey, Mom," I greeted back, relieved to hear her voice after such a long time. _"Ah, Mikan! How're doing?"_

"I'm fine. Busy with all these things that are happening here, though. You?"

"_Busy with work as always."_ She laughed and I let out a small giggle. "Mom, you aren't overdoing it, are you?"

She huffed in amusement; I could already imagine the smile she was presenting. _"Don't worry, I won't. I've got a headache anyway, so I need to take some rest."_

I blinked at the last part of the sentence. "What? Headache…?"

"_Through the slight stress I'm in now." _

I furrowed my eyebrows in worry. "'Stress'?" I repeated, my voice getting higher. "From what?"

"_Because of the fact that you're not here, it's awfully silent and lonely around here. I always wanted the time to go fast so the days would go by faster; therefore I kept on working harder, asked for more things that I could do…" _Her words faded away.

I swallowed, noticing that she really didn't sound so healthy and happily like she always did, even if she tried so hard to hide it. "How long do you have the headaches…?"

"_Almost two weeks, I guess...?" _

"'Almost two weeks'?" I snapped right back at her, removing my back from the tree trunk. I stared down at the green ground with my eyes wide, trying to imagine how my mother looked. "Mom—!"

"_Calm down, Mikan," _she cut me off, trying to push away my worries._ "I went to see the doctor after four days and he said the same things I just told you: stress. As long as I take my medicine and take things easy, I'll be fine in no time."_

I still wasn't convinced, though, "But it's my fault, isn't it? If you want, I'll go to the camp owner and ask if I can come back home."

"_Don't,"_ Mom's voice was strict and determined. _"I don't want to ruin your summer just because of me, Mikan. As long as I take enough rest and know that you're doing fine too, I'll be okay."_

I let out a deep sigh and leaned back against the tree for support. "You sure?" I asked her back.

I could already imagine her nodding happily at me. _"Yes. Thank you for calling to let me know how you're doing; I really appreciate it. It's good to hear your voice again."_

I smiled. "Same. But… I think I'm going to hang up now."

"_Oh, okay."_

"Sleep well and take care." She chuckled lightly at that. _"Thank you, dear, and you take care too."_ With that said she hung up and after some seconds, I closed my phone and put it back into my jean pockets.

Great, that didn't really cheer me up as much as I thought it would.

Just then, the camp owner stepped out of the canteen and some seconds later, Sasuke and Natsume came through the door as well, following the adult in silence; they both had a dark look written on their faces.

I blinked my eyes at what I saw in confusion.

Sasuke suddenly turned his face to my direction. When his dark eyes caught mine, he raised his crimson eyebrow slightly in surprise.

Natsume noticed that Sasuke had his attention somewhere else and decided to look at the same direction he was looking at.

"Oi," the crimson-haired male called and headed to me with Natsume slowly following him, both obviously not caring about Kei who just continued to walk his steps.

"Ah… hey," I greeted back as they stood in front of me.

When I realized the dirty spots they had on their clothes and faces, I gave them a wide-eyed stare. "Wow, what the hell happened to you two? Got caught in a food fight or something?"

It surprised me that I was right, "That bastard started it," Sasuke said with two nods and pointed a small finger at the male next to him who gave him a dark scowl. "Tch, as if."

"You threw a pizza slice at me."

"_You_ threw it back."

Sasuke huffed. "At least I wasn't the one who needed protection of his friends." The other gave him a matter-of-factly look. "Don't talk shit; as soon as you saw my group, you wanted one of your own."

"Okay, stop it!" I butted in to stop the quarrel they where having, glaring in irritation at both of them. "It doesn't matter who started it, you're _both_ in trouble anyways."

The boys' moods didn't get any better. "Tell me about it," the son of the owner returned. "It wouldn't surprise me if we need to clean the whole camp as punishment."

I gave him a slight confused look. "It wouldn't surprise you?"

Sasuke nodded. "My father's punishments always have to do with cleaning: doing the dishes, clean the dorms, clean the canteen, etc. Trust me, this isn't our first time." Natsume agreed with some curt nods.

"Oh…" I let out. After a small moment of silence, I continued, "But where are the others?"

The raven-haired one dug his hands into his pockets. "Still in the canteen."

"What for?"

"Waiting for Kei," he told me without hesitation.

I raised my eyebrows. "Even Hotaru and the three Mori's?"

Natsume shrugged in a nonchalant way. "Probably. But where were you?"

I stared at him. "Uhh… why?"

He gave me a casual look. "Could've hit you with a pizza slice to get closer by winning the challenge of ours." The male showed me a small mischievous and amused smirk as he saw the way I blushed.

I tried to give him my best glare. "S-shut up. If you really wanna know, I was here, calling my mother."

"Oi, Hyuuga, Sasuke!" We all turned our attention to Kei who stood near the first building. "Stop flirting and hurry up." I couldn't help to blush slightly in embarrassment at the last sentence, while Sasuke cursed and Natsume rolled his crimson eyes away in irritation, letting out a frustrated sigh.

Without even saying something, they did what the adult said. Along the way, I could hear them insulting each other.

It didn't take long before my curiosity got control over me and I walked towards the canteen. Just when I reached my hand out for the door knob, the door opened already and an angry Chika stepped out of it, followed by her two sisters.

Chika and I both blinked our eyes upon seeing each other before I noticed the dirty spots on her and her sisters' clothes, hair and, through the fact they were all wearing something sleeveless, on their skin. "Got caught in the food fight, huh…?" I half-guessed and the sky-blue eyed one raised her eyebrow questionable. "How did you know?"

"Sasuke and Good-looking jerk somewhat told me what happened."

"Oh…" she let out first before she frowned her forehead again and turned her voice into an angry one. "Can you believe it? Just because they don't want to lose against each other, and look at us now!" She spread her arms as a sign that I had to look at her clothes; I just nodded to say that I already had noticed it.

"Agreed," Chieko said just before they walked away in the direction where the third building was standing. "Really, if I see Sasuke again, I'm going to knock some senses in that boy."

"Don't you like him…?" Chiharu questioned her, slightly surprised that the oldest female just said that.

The female glared at her, a blush touching her cheeks. "That has nothing to do with it, Chiharu."

"Hey," I called out to get their attention. "Don't you have to wait for the owner?"

Chika half faced me with an irritated expression. "As if we're going to wait for that old geezer to come back. We want to take a shower as soon as possible before we go kill Sasuke." That was clear.

While the three sisters continued their steps, I turned my attention to the tomboyish-haired blackmailing queen who came out of the canteen; she also was covered with pizza and other food stains.

"Hey, Hota—" I wanted to greet carefully with a small smile on my face, but she held her hand in front of my face to signal me I had to shut up. Understanding why, I let her pass me and walk away.

Soon all the other camp students who were in the canteen, and obviously got caught into the food fight too, came through the door with dark expressions written all over their faces; even Cho with her three friends and Ruka, Mochu and Koko were a victim.

All the students were moaning in irritation at what happened, some saying things like, "Why the hell did I let it come this far to join that stupid fight?", "Like hell I'm going to wait for Mr. Kakashi," and "Ugh, this is so disgusting…" Some even were cursing and insulting Natsume and Sasuke, blaming them.

I just watched them leave in silence.

When they all were gone, I got into the building myself only to gape in shock at what I saw. "O my God…" I breathed; almost all the tables lay on the dirty floor and all the walls were covered with dirty food stains. It was as though a food bomb was exploded.

"ARGH!" the canteen lady suddenly screamed in frustration and stomped to the door while trying to get a bit bread out of her hair. "I've had enough of this! I'm going to Kei to end my job here! Idiotic camp, idiotic children!" She continued on insulting and cursing as she stepped outside.

I stared in silence at the door and decided that it'd be better to leave this place before someone would think something strange.

I blinked as I saw Natsume walking in a slow yet calm pace into my direction; his face didn't say anything good, more than usual.

I had already my lips parted to ask him how it went, but he just passed me, getting into the building, without even glancing at me once.

"Don't talk." He demanded, receiving from me a confused stare.

Wondering why the hell he was back here, I followed him, watching in silence how he grabbed a table and placed it back on its four legs. "Where's Sasuke?" I first asked when I noticed he wasn't around here.

"Taking a shower," was Natsume's curt answer and headed to another table. "Oh…" I replied and raised my eyebrow. "Why didn't you take a shower too?"

"Because my room's in the second building, Sasuke's is in the first building. Kei's office is near building one; now guess."

"Hmm, what did Kei say then?"

"None of your business." When I watched more carefully what he was doing, I already got a thought of what Kei did say to him and a feeling of laughter popped up inside of me.

"You need to clean the whole canteen, don't you?" I asked in a low voice, my lips curved into a smirk while I was trying my best not to laugh.

The male sighed deeply in irritation and straightened his back just when he wanted to grab another table.

He faced me; his look only darkened when he found out that I had trouble holding in my laughter. "Don't you dare," he said in a warning voice, his crimson eyes slightly narrowed.

But right after he said that, I burst out laughing and started to point my index finger at him. "Are you serious? You? The _famous_ Natsume Hyuuga, who's always acting so tough and cold, have to scrape the tomato sauce off the walls!" I mocked, ignoring the dark growl that appeared from out his throat. "Hah! Looks like you're not so tough at all."

"You're going to help me." I immediately stopped laughing, giving him a blunt look instead. "I beg your pardon…?"

"You're going to help me," the male repeated again; it didn't even sound like a request.

I crossed my arms over my chest in a strong yet defending way. "Give me one reason why I should help you."

"Doesn't matter. You're going to help me."

"No," I said back, this time by voice a bit louder and higher. "Why do you want me to help you?" Natsume raised his eyebrow in a cocky way. "Because you're annoying and can't shut up." I glared and shook my head. "Forget it."

He flipped his messy bangs backwards. "We can settle this with a staring contest," he suddenly told me in his usual deep voice, still slight hints of irritation present in it.

I frowned in confusion. "'Staring contest'?"

"If you lose you'll help me clean this place up." I deepened my frown, slightly irritated. "You really want to make me miserable, huh…?" With still a blunt expression, he nodded twice as an answer.

I rolled my eyes away and sighed. "Fine. But if I win, I'll get one point for that stupid challenge we're having."

Natsume snorted. "As though you're going to win," I narrowed my eyes at him. "Yes, or no?" Then he rolled his rare eyes away from me. "Fine," he half-muttered, walking into my direction.

As he stood in front of me, his crimson eyes turned to mine amber ones and the staring contest began.

At first, it was okay: I just looked back into his eyes strongly with my eyebrows slightly furrowed in concentration. But as the moment went by my heart began to speed up and I started to feel nervous at the way his eyes were set on me.

He seemed to notice this because his eyebrow cocked up into a questionable way.

I swallowed loudly and could feel a slight blush creeping over my cheeks.

Natsume suddenly presented a tight smirk and took a step closer, his face closer to mine. Surprised, I immediately faced the other way.

He took a step back, showing me an amused look. "I won."

I bit the insides of my cheek as I still had my eyes away from him, trying to control my heart. As my heart calmed down a bit more, I eyed him again with a glare. "You did that on purpose!"

He shoved his hands into his pockets. "I've got no idea what you're talking about."

"Yes, you do. You tricked me!"

He huffed softly and then smirked again. "Then that means I get a point, right?"

My eyebrows raised. "Oh, no you don't. Forget it. This _doesn't _count!"

"Too late, I already noted it," he said easily and turned around, walking away to grab something. I walked after him. "Noted in what? No, Good-looking jerk!"

I shrieked in surprise when he suddenly pushed an empty bucket into my hands.

"Fill this with water," Natsume commanded, ignoring the way I glared at him darkly. "I won't help you clean up the mess _you_ created!"

His annoyance began to grew again. "You said you'd help me and besides, I won the staring contest."

I suddenly felt stupid that I accepted that staring contest instead of just walking away, and ignoring him. "Yeah, but still…"

Natsume handed me a cloth with a matter-of-factly look written all over his face. "You're the one who accepted the deal and you lost," he pointed out as though I hadn't realized that yet.

I snorted loudly in irritation, showing him a pout. "I know, I know." I growled before I just let him have his way and did what he said. "But seriously, this isn't settled yet." I somewhat warned him, my face turned to the back to look at him.

The male chuckled softly into amusement and with his lips curved into a challenging smirk, he looked right back at me. "Yeah, yeah, whatever you say."

* * *

Sam – I hope you all liked this chapter; the pudding in the face part is mostly based on my life: I got annoyed through a girl once and she didn't want to shut up. So, having enough of hearing her voice, I grabbed a spoon, put some pudding on it, and threw it to her in the hope it'll land in front of her on the table but instead of that, she got it in her face. Even though I didn't expect that, I still almost died of laughing so hard. XD

You'll see a lot more idiotic and useless pranks of Natsume and Mikan, just to show each other who's the strongest and to make each other's lives a hell. So get ready for that. ; ]

Review and don't flame.

Much love,  
Unknown Pain


	8. His Mark of Victory

**Written by –** Unknown Pain.  
**Disclaimer –** Disclaimed.

**The Beat of Love**

"_Music is my soul, my life, I can't live without it. Without music, life would be a mistake." _

-Unknown Pain-

* * *

**-Chapter VIII – His Mark of Victory-**

Hotaru and the three sisters stared at me with a blunt yet surprised face after hearing what I told them. I swallowed and bit the insides of my cheek, gazing away in embarrassment that only grew because of them not talking.

Chika blinked her sky-blue eyes and frowned. "Wow, hold up," she said and scratched the back of her head. She sat down next to Hotaru who sat on the foot from my bed. "Are you telling us that you're starting to turn into Natsume's bitch…?"

I glared at her not a second after she asked me that, my eyes wide. "Of course not!"

Hotaru shrugged in a nonchalant manner and looked at Chika. "It sounded like that," The brown-haired girl nodded her head in agreement.

"Well, it isn't true," I said in an angry tone. "I just trapped myself in his stupid, cocky and matter-of-factly words, that's all."

"But doesn't that mean Natsume already has two points and you have zero?" Chiharu pointed out in an innocent voice, obviously not knowing that her sentence stabbed me right in my body.

With a frustrated moan, I fell backwards on my bed again, my head sinking in my pillow. "I'm doomed…"

"Don't act like a total emo, Mikan. You've still got enough chance to win against him," Chieko told me, one of her hands placed on her hip.

I sat up and eyed her with my eyebrows slightly raised. "I don't even know how!"

Hotaru ran her fingers through her black hair, eyeing a spot on my blankets as though she was in thought. "He knows that you've got some special feelings for him, so his way of joking is mostly based on flirting."

"There's nothing special about hatred!" I snapped, defending myself the best I could. I tried to hide the blush that started to creep over my cheeks in the meantime.

Hotaru just put up a hand to sign that I had to shut up.

Chika smirked in amusement at what just happened between me and my best friend and flipped her bangs backwards. "She's right, though, Mikan: he knows that you've got a weakness for him and he takes advances of that."

I pouted with a deep frown of annoyance. "You're talking nonsense."

Chika sighed and rolled with her eyes, irritated that I didn't believe her. She she leaned a bit closer to me, her hands on her left leg that she had put on the bed. "Think about it: that with the pudding, he asked you if you were a good kisser first. Then, with the whole staring contest, he knew that you were kinda freaking out because of him staring at you like that so he took a step closer to you."

I still didn't follow her. "Your point is…?" I returned.

"He wants to break your concentration and leave you unguarded." Hotaru responded with a matter-of-factly look.

I just stared at the two, getting it all in my head; that explained everything… "That jerk," I somewhat hissed, my forehead creased. "Isn't that cheating?"

Chieko crossed her arms in front of her chest, her eyebrows slightly raised in a cocky manner. "You haven't said anything about the way the jokes have to be done, so technically, no."

I sighed, shaking my head in dismay. "Great; that jerk is going to win, I need to kiss him, and he's going to _haunt_ me with it for the rest of my life. A dream come true."

"Not if you're going to do it too," Chika responded, a smirk placed onto her pink lips.

I gave her a confused look.

"Do the same as what he's been doing all this time," she began to explain. "I'm pretty sure that he won't expect that, especially from you."

"Ah, yeah!" Chiharu chirped, highly agreeing with the idea her older sister gave, and placed her hands on her shoulders. "If you want to show him that you're not a girl that can be brought down easily, you should do this."

"You want me to get him back with his own… kind of jokes?" I questioned to make sure I'd get this. The four in front of me nodded their heads at the same time.

I just stared at them and some seconds later I began to blush. "Wow! I don't think I can do that!"

Chieko smiled. "Of course you can! But…" Her expression started to turn into questionable and she shifted her pink eyes to Hotaru and Chika. "What exactly can she do?"

"She can pretend to kiss him," the black-haired female said with no emotions. She eyed me to see my reaction.

My eyes widened and my blush even darkened. "What? No. Never! I won't kiss him!" I snapped quickly.

Hotaru frowned. "I said _pretend_ to kiss him; that means it's fake."

Even though my heart calmed down a bit, I still didn't feel quite good about it. "How the hell am I supposed to do that?"

"You have kissed someone before, right?" Chika asked with her eyebrow raised questionably.

I nodded as an answer.

"See? Pretend like you want to kiss him, lean your face closer to his, close your eyes and just when you feel his breath against your lips, you pull away and leave him standing there like a total idiot."

"And if I fail…?"

Hotaru shrugged nonchalantly. "Then you've kissed him, boohoo. Like you don't want it,"

I glared at her because of her last sentence, but she pretended like she didn't care.

Chika widened her smirk, amusement written all over her face. "I've done it before and trust me: it'll work. You only have to wait for the right moment, that's all."

* * *

My eyes slowly fluttered open as I heard the birds singing their morning melodies. Some seconds later I yawned, rubbing my eyes with the back of my hands.

I stepped out of bed and made my way to the bathroom, splashing some water on my face before heading to the living room where Hotaru was sitting on the couch, watching TV.

"Good morning," I greeted her, my voice still a bit dry of just waking up.

She peered over her shoulder and with a nod to greet me back, she shifted her attention back to the TV.

"What time is it?" I asked while plopping next to her, putting my feet on the couch and pressed my legs against my body.

"Ten o'clock." Hotaru answered curtly, never removing her amethyst eyes from the TV screen.

"When did you wake up?"

"At nine or something."

"Why so early? It's Saturday, remember?"

"My parents called me."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "Really? That's good, right?"

She shrugged her shoulders to answer my question, her dark eyes still locked on the object that wasn't standing far away from the couch we were sitting on.

"What did they say…?"

"How I was doing, that they missed me, how long it'll take before this camp year is over, all that kind of shit."

I slightly frowned at the tone her voice had when she said that sentence. "You don't really sound happy…" I pointed out.

She glanced at me from her eye corners, not moving her head once, before she sighed and faced me properly. "That's because I'm more surprised than happy about it."

"Why?"

"Just before I left, I got into a fight with my parents; they said that they were glad I'd leave and that they finally could get their rest. Now that I've been away for almost a month, they're calling me like nothing happened."

"I'm sure they didn't mean what they said to you and feel bad about it, and that this is their way of showing you that." I said, soothing her a bit.

Hotaru shrugged again and turned her gaze back to the TV. "Whatever."

I smiled and hugged her to let her know that everything would be okay. She put an arm around me as though she was thanking me.

"I'm going to take a shower," I said as I let her go and stood up. Before I could actually leave, the black-haired female said, "You know what today's plan is, right?"

I stiffened and slightly blushed in embarrassment. I swallowed loudly before facing her again. "Y-yes, I do. But how're you certain that he's in Central Town today?"

"Because I know him," my friend replied with a shrug. "And if he isn't in Central Town, he's sitting in the sakura tree, reading his manga, or in his room."

"That means that there's a chance we'll be wasting our time if we're in Central Town," I pointed out slowly, my eyebrows furrowed slightly in annoyance.

Hotaru nodded twice in a calm way. "Probably."

I glared at her. "Hotaru!" I somewhat snapped. She gave me an irritated glare back. "_Don't complain_. You agreed with the whole plan yesterday, didn't you?"

I bit the insides of my cheek, regretting my decision, and nodded to respond.

"Well then, at least be thankful that the three sisters and I are helping you win this stupid challenge." I pouted a bit with a frown. "You only want to see me and Good-looking jerk kiss."

"No, the three Mori's want to see you guys kiss each other and live an happily ever after," she corrected me with no emotions, her eyebrow slightly raised in a cocky manner. "I, on the other hand, want to see Kitty Cat lose so I can laugh at him."

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Thank you, that really makes me feel better."

Hotaru presented a tight smirk. "Glad I could help. Go take a shower and hurry up, I want to have some breakfast."

* * *

"O my God, look at that dress!" Chiharu almost squealed at the purple, elegant-looking, dress.

Chieko joined her by standing next to her in front of the shop-window. "It sure is," she agreed and turned her light gaze to Chika who stood, together with me and Hotaru, some steps away from them.

She pointed at it with her thumb, smiling sweetly, as though she was asking her if they could buy it or try it on.

The dark-haired female shook her head twice, her arms folded in front of her chest. "Forget it."

Chieko and Chiharu immediately raised her eyebrows in disappointment, slightly moaning under their breaths. "Why?" the two asked in unison.

"Because it's too expensive and we weren't here to buy expensive stuff." Chika responded in the same voice and with the same nonchalant expression.

The youngest pouted childishly. "It isn't _that_ expensive…" she mumbled, glancing at the dress from her eye corners.

Chika started to furrow her brown eyebrows. "Doesn't matter; we don't even have time to buy something."

I eyed her, my lips slightly curved into a fake smile. "Y-you know, I don't really mind if they go into that shop to check out that dress," I told her, seeing this in the meantime as a way to escape.

Chika only looked at me with a frown while Hotaru sighed and shook her head in displeasure.

She placed a hand on my shoulder, her black eyebrow slightly bounced up. "Give it up, Mikan, it won't work." She caught me.

I pouted in protest, my forehead deeply furrowed.

"Let's just walk further," Chika suggested as she placed a lock behind her ears. "Maybe we will see him."

I just walked after the four girls in silence, my expression dark of the way I felt. "He isn't here." I told them again.

Chieko peered over her shoulder to set her pink eyes on me. "How do you know that? We just got here."

"Because I haven't seen him or any squealing fan-girls running around here."

"So? That doesn't mean anything."

I rolled my eyes away, giving up. I stopped my attention on Hotaru who suddenly was holding a camera in her hands. "Why did you bring a camera with you?"

She eyed me sideways, a blunt look painted on her face. "What are cameras made for?"

"Taking pictures…"

"Exactly."

I raised my eyebrow at that. "Of what?" I dared to ask and already started to feel not good about it.

She shrugged her shoulders. She gazed forward to see where she was walking. "Hn, you'll see."

I immediately frowned at that. "Do I have to be scared?"

"If you want to be."

"Hotaru!"

"I need money."

"You _have_ money already!" I said with a loud voice. "So don't you dare take pictures of me if I'm doing something embarrassing!"

She eyed me with a slight glint of annoyance in her cold eyes. "Who said you were going to be my victim?"

I still glared at her, not being convinced. "I don't trust you," I told her honestly. She shrugged in a not caring way, eyeing away. "Whatever."

"Hey, Sasuke!" Chiharu suddenly chirped excitedly. She almost skipped to the said male, embracing him into a tight hug.

Chieko and Chika just followed her and greeted him normally. I wanted to greet him, too, but halted my words as soon as I saw his hairstyle: instead of spiky hair, his hair hung messily and loosely over his ears and in front of his cold-looking eyes.

"Sasuke…?" I only said, blinking twice.

Hotaru only raised her eyebrow slightly in a questionable way. "What the hell did you do with your hair?"

When he turned his gaze to us, I noticed that he was everything besides in a good mood. "I don't have any hair gel in it," he said, annoyance dripping from his deep voice.

"Why?" Chika asked, a bit surprised. "You love hair gel."

Sasuke narrowed his dark eyes at her. "You think?" he sneered some seconds later. The male then growled deep inside his throat and ran his fingers through his messy hair, flipping his bangs backwards to let it fall in front of his eyes a moment later. "It's all that Sora's fault: he keeps on following me to whatever I'm going, leaving me having no time to buy new gel."

"The reason why you're here," Chieko pointed out. He nodded his head once to let her know that she was right.

Chiharu raised her dark blonde brows. "Why don't you let him find you?"

"Because he'd bring me straight back to my father," Sasuke told her with a deep frown.

Chika suddenly raised her eyebrow and smirked half jokingly, half flirty, her arms covering her chest. "Well, it looks good, so you don't have to worry about that."

Sasuke only raised his crimson eyebrow, somewhat signaling her that he didn't know what the hell she was talking about. His expression was still dark of annoyance.

Chiharu started to chuckle and nodded her head soon after in agreement. "Yeah, you were already good-looking, but now you're… _hot_."

The male in front of them started to frown, finding her overreacting.

Chiharu nodded again with her eyebrows raised, trying to convince him. She turned to her oldest sister. "Right, Chieko?" The said girl immediately blinked in surprise and licked her pink lips, eyeing the older male in silence.

"A-ahh…" she first let out, already blushing. "S-sure." She presented him a small smile, making him raise his eyebrow and then rolled his eyes to us, as though he was asking for our opinion.

Hotaru just bluntly looked back while I decided to be honest, and presented him a sweet smile. "You look good." It really wasn't a lie.

He stared at me in silence for a split second before he shook his head, and brushed his fingers through his hair again. "Whatever. I gotta go before that idiotic man finds me again."

Chiharu giggled in amusement and nodded her head once. "See you later!" With the rest of us saying or waving goodbye, Sasuke passed us with his hands shoved into his pockets.

We also walked further and after we came by a music shop, the three sisters dragged us in it with an excuse that Natsume would be there.

While the three Mori's were at the back of the shop, and Hotaru stopped by some CDs near the door, I decided to look around for some, too, and walked over to a CD section.

While I did so, my eyes were scanning everything around me, not paying any attention to the ones who were passing me or walking in front of me.

Because of that, I collided with someone and accidentally fell on top of him. In my mind I insulted myself for every possible little thing I could think of, while in reality I apologized to the person in a whisper-like voice and, with both of my hands on my forehead where mostly all the pain came from, I sat up.

When I saw who I collided with, it was like my world ended. "G-Good-looking… jerk...?" I managed to stutter, my eyes wide at the said male who was groaning of pain beneath me, his hands on his forehead because of being hit on his head by my own.

"Y-you…" he growled dangerously and let his hands down to eye me from behind his messy bangs that fell in front of his narrowed eyes. "Look where the _fuck_ you're going." He was furious, no doubt about it.

I realized that I still sat on him, my hands on his broad, muscled-like chest, staring upon him with my lips slightly parted and my eyes still wide.

I swallowed my dry throat and started to blush.

A normal person would already get off and maybe even ran away from the humiliation, but it was like something stopped me.

Natsume still glared at me as though he wanted to kill me with his looks. Then slowly, after a quick moment, he sat up, leaning on one hand, leaving our faces to be inches away from each other.

His eyes grew out of surprise while I blushed even more, staring with my wide eyes into his own, my heart speeding up.

It was silent for a moment and I didn't even notice the people that surrounded us out of worry.

Natsume finally narrowed his eyes again, his lips pushed into a thin line of irritation. "This is now the time where you have to get off me."

As though his words hit me back into reality, I quickly closed my mouth and immediately climbed off him.

The raven-haired lad stood up as well, dusting off his dark, cool-looking, clothes while I straightened my skirt in the meantime.

When I heard the random voices from around us, I finally noticed that we weren't alone. My blush only darkened; they obviously had seen us…

"Mikan…?" the voice of Chieko suddenly could be heard. She, together with the others, pushed herself through the small crowd.

"Mikan!" she exclaimed as she saw me, her face surprised and confused. She neared her distance between me and her. "What happened?"

"A-ahh…" I only let out, somewhat embarrassed to tell her what had happened. Instead of giving her a proper answer, I looked at the male that was standing in front of me, not missing the terrible and dark things his face was screaming.

"That idiot here can't watch where she's going," he commented and rubbed his forehead with his hand once again.

I frowned, slightly feeling insulted even though it was my fault that I bumped into him.

"So you two collided with each other…?" Hotaru pointed out in a matter-of-factly voice, her black brow a bit raised.

The random people that had surrounded us slowly walked away as they noticed that no one was hurt or anything, and went back to whatever they were doing.

Natsume and I didn't answer her question: I just looked away while the older teen scowled at me in irritation.

"I see that as a yes," Chika said in a calm voice.

"Did you get hurt?" the oldest female asked me with her orange eyebrows furrowed in concern.

I swallowed a bit. "My forehead hit his…" I mumbled without making any eye contact with Natsume; I really felt stupid about it.

"Idiot," he growled once again in a deep voice.

I looked at him with a soft frown. "It's not like I did it on purpose, or something..." Natsume just scoffed as a reaction, not wanting to hear it.

"Don't lie, Mikan," Hotaru suddenly said which made me look at her in surprise. "Just admit you did this for the challenge you two are having."

"W-what…?" I only reacted, not believing that my best friend just said that while I was sure of it that she knew it was an accident. "That's no—!"

"That makes sense," Chika said, nodding in agreement at what the black-haired blackmailing queen just said. She eyed the crimson-eyed male who's black aura already started to appear around him. "And it looks like she got a point."

I just stared at the two in silence, wondering what the hell they were doing.

Chieko blinked and then a moment later she curved her lips into a smirk, placing her hands on her hips. "Oh, so that's what you were doing, Mikan; you wanted to humiliate him! Good thinking to do it like that."

Chiharu chuckled in amusement, while I decided not to say anything anymore.

Natsume breathed through his nose in a loud way, as though he did that to calm himself down, his jaw tensed up and his emotionless eyes narrowed.

Just when I thought he'd explode at me with insults, he huffed almost in a cool way, smirking as he turned his back to me. He brushed his fingers through his hair in the meantime. "Whatever." His voice was back into his usual, deep, yet emotionless, one and walked away as if nothing had happened.

When he was out of the shop, I gaped at them in disbelief. "What the hell is wrong with you guys?" I said in a high voice.

Hotaru smirked coolly. "Calm down," she responded. "We all knew that it was an accident but we decided to help you a little bit."

I blinked in confusion. "'Help me a little bit'…?" I repeated in a slow voice.

Chiharu nodded her head twice, her lips set into a smile. "Yeah! Now you've got a point."

I still stared at them in confusion, trying to get everything in my head.

"And that only with one simple lie," Chika said with a proud smirk and looked at Chieko who laughed in agreement.

When I finally got everything in my head, I automatically started to smile but slightly frowned at them. "U-uh.. Thank you?"

Chieko smiled back at me. "No problem! Now come on, let's go to the cafeteria and grab something to eat."

* * *

I twitched my left eye in disbelieve and shock at what Hotaru just told me, her expression still as emotionless as ever.

We were in the crowded cafeteria, sitting at a small table that was still left.

"Y-you did what…?" I already felt a blush creeping over my cheeks out of embarrassment.

"I took a picture of you and Kitty Cat lying on each other." She repeated her words like it was the most normal thing in the world.

The three Mori's stared at her in silence, a bit surprised she actually had the nerve to do something like that, but decided to stay out of it though.

"Y-you're kidding me, right?" I responded, my voice almost an octave higher.

Hotaru shook her head once what seemed to be her answer, causing me to freak out even more.

"You said I wouldn't be your victim!" I snapped at her, glowering the best I could. Of course, the black-haired female didn't feel threatened by it or whatsoever; she sipped her diet coke calmly, her hand under her chin. "I see this as a thank you for helping you out just now at that music shop."

"I never asked you to help me," I pointed out in an angry voice, my forehead deeply frowned.

"Doesn't matter; I knew you were in trouble. That's what friends are for." Hotaru returned easily, still as calm as ever.

"What kind of friend blackmails their own friends?"

"A good one," She let out a small sigh and ran her fingers through her tomboyish hair, crossing her arms over her chest afterwards. "But don't worry, I'll make a copy of it and change that one into something even better."

The three Mori's and I looked at her in confusion, not understanding what she was talking about. "Like…?" I asked her, not liking the way she curved her thin lips into a mischievous smirk. "You'll see."

"But wait," Chieko said all of a sudden, changing the subject a bit. "Hasn't that plan that we thought of failed…?"

Chiharu agreed by nodding her head a couple of times, and eyed the black-haired female questionably.

"For today, yes," Chika said instead, leaning her head on her hand almost in a bored manner.

Hotaru nodded one time and pressed her back into the chair she was sitting on, her arms in front of her chest. She faced me. "But there will be a lot of other days, so no big deal. Besides," She smirked again. "What I've thought of is much better."

* * *

The next morning there was a big ruckus outside, next to building 3. Hotaru dragged me to the wall of the building where every other camp student was standing, whispering about something, laughing and pointing at it.

"What's going on here?" I said as I let go of Hotaru's hand.

Some heard me and turned their attention to me. "There's a picture of Natsume and Sasuke there on the wall!" a girl said loudly, pointing at it.

I blinked my eyes in confusion. "'A picture of Natsume and Sasuke'…?" I repeated her words almost in a whisper and pushed myself through the crowd to look at it.

My eyes widened in shock at what I saw: the picture was presenting Natsume sitting on the floor with Sasuke sitting on his lap, their faces inches away from each other and their cold eyes wide out of shock.

My heart began to speed up as I realized that that actually happened to me one day ago. I quickly snapped my head to the direction where Hotaru was standing, gaping at her with my mouth wide open.

She had her hands in her pockets and shrugged her shoulders in a nonchalant way; her face was emotionless but her amethyst eyes were twinkling out of mischievousness and amusement.

That girl had made a copy out of the original and photo shopped the whole thing!

I heard the laugh of Koko and Mochu coming from behind me. I half turned around to face the two males who had all the attention on the picture.

"Hah, Sasuke and Natsume?" Koko began loudly, his lips turned into a wide smirk of amusement. "I never expected to see something like that."

Mochu laughed and folded his arms in front of his slight muscled chest. "Who thought and made this is a real genius. I wonder where they are..." He said the last sentence while he scanned his dark grey eyes around the noisy crowd.

When he eyed his blonde friend, Ruka shrugged his shoulders, patting his pet in the meantime. "Sasuke's probably still sleeping and Natsume's in the canteen getting something to eat."

I swallowed my dry throat a bit in a nervous way, already taking some steps backwards; they sure were going after me, especially the raven-haired one.

Thinking that this would be the right time to go away, I made my way out of the crowd, deciding to go to a peaceful place where I could hide for the time being.

I stiffened as I suddenly felt a piercing gaze stabbing my back. Having already a feeling who that might be, I slowly faced that direction with horror written all over my face; even though I slightly knew who it was, I still gasped as I saw Natsume, heading with his hands into fists to my way, his look dangerous.

Not wanting to be with him now, I immediately walked away but after taking only two steps he got already hold on my arm.

I flinched at how firm his hold was and eyed the angry male with a deep frown. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Come." He only responded in a curt way and dragged me as quickly as he could to a tree where no one could see us, and where he'd be safe.

Natsume ignored my shriek as he slammed my back against the trunk, his hands firmly holding my shoulders to make sure I wouldn't go anywhere.

"What the hell did you do?" the male began furiously, almost threatening me with his look that if I didn't answer this quickly, bad things would happen.

My eyebrows raised slightly in surprise, not expecting him to go after me that quickly. "W-what are you talking about?"

Natsume narrowed his crimson eyes. "About that idiotic picture," I frowned deeply and tried to struggle out of his grip in the meantime. "I can't even do something like that."

"No, but your freaky friend can."

I swallowed my dry throat and glared to show him that I wasn't afraid of him or whatsoever. "Are you really thinking that I asked _Hotaru_ to do this?" The male nodded curtly to respond to my question, his expression still dark of the anger and annoyance he felt.

"I haven't done—" He cut me off, "First you bumped into me on purpose and then this," He tightened his grip. "You really want to win that badly?"

I looked at him in silence with almost the same (less scarier though) dark look. When he smirked, I widened my eyes and quickly shook my head to make sure he wouldn't think wrong thoughts. "D-don't take this the wrong way, jerk; I'm only doing this to show you that I'm better than you." A bush of embarrassment already began to touch my cheeks.

It seemed that what I said amused him and he raised his short brow almost seductively. "So you're admitting you did this for the challenge…" It was a statement.

I sighed loudly through my lips, nodding my head soon after; maybe he'd let me go. "Yeah, fine. You've got two points, I've got two points, whatever. Now let me go!"

"Hn," Natsume first let me hear and titled his head a bit to the left, still holding me strongly against the tree.

His expression suddenly lightened a bit up into his usual calm yet emotionless one, his eyes boring into mine; not knowing what else I could do, I just looked right back to him. I licked my dry lips a bit in nervousness, wondering in the meantime what he was thinking about.

And then, out of blue, he leaned his face near mine.

My eyes grew out of surprise and mostly out of shock when I felt his warm breath tickling my neck. I gasped softly when his lips brushed softly against my skin, as though he was afraid I was going to break any minute.

"W-wait," I breathed in a whispered voice, failing to sound strong. I used my hands to push him away, not having a clue that I was wasting my time doing that. "W-what are… you _doing_?"

Natsume ignored my voice and my pushes, and continued with moving his lips around the bridge of my neck.

My heart was acting as if it was going to explode out of my chest any minute, my face burning.

I started to feel his tongue lapping a spot on my neck, going sometimes a bit higher before lowering again.

I tried to push him away once more. Instead of moving away, he removed his hands from my shoulders as fast as he could and grabbed my wrists, placing them above my head where he also held them; it didn't matter if I tensed my muscles and fought back.

I whimpered at what he was still doing, hoping that he might saw that as a sign to stop, but the cold-hearted bastard simply ignored it.

It was as though his actions were starting to paralyze me; my legs started to feel weak, just as my arms, and I stopped struggling.

I closed my eyes as tightly as I could, just letting him do this, because even though this confused me, it still felt good.

I stiffened as Natsume suddenly bit me for a small moment and then started to suck that same spot a second later.

I could sense his eyebrow lifting out of amusement when I let out a small moan under my breath.

"Natsu—" The said male scraped my skin again with his teeth, causing me to whimper softly out of shock, before he continued to suck again.

Finally, after a small moment, he finally removed his lips from my neck, straightening his back as he let me go.

Natsume smirked almost proudly when he saw my neck, his eyebrow slightly raised. "Hn, looks good." I stared at him with horror, my face still colored a deep red while I placed my hand over the slightly throbbing spot. "N-no…" I only breathed, disbelieve dripping off my voice. "No, you didn't..."

The male in front of me nodded twice, obviously saying that he did what I thought.

I blushed even more out of embarrassment. "You gave me a _hickey_?" I snapped in a high voice.

He put his hands into his jean pockets, not making a big deal out of it. His lips were cracked into a seductive yet amused smirk. "The best one I've ever made."

"You bastard!"

"It's now 3-2, by the way," he returned in a blunt voice, ignoring my insults.

"H-how big is it…?" I dared to ask him and his blunt face didn't even change when he said, "Pretty big."

"Good-looking jerk!" I yelled, getting only more embarrassed and frustrated with the moment. "Everyone will see it!"

Natsume shrugged easily. "You had to think of that before you humiliated me twice,"

I glared at him with my eyes still wide. "I never _marked_ you!"

The older one started to frown. "You did."

I blinked in confusion before he pushed his raven, messy bangs backwards to show me that he had a red spot on his forehead… The spot where I hit him with my own.

"So? That'll take only two days to disappear, or something. What you gave me will probably take weeks before it's finally gone!"

Natsume ran his fingers through his hair in a cool way. "Doesn't matter."

I took a deep breath and massaged my temples to calm myself down, realizing that this was getting nowhere. "I can't believe you actually gave me a hickey…" I began to grumble after a moment of silence between the two of us, narrowing my amber eyes the best I could.

He smirked again, obviously amusing himself. "It's more like a mark of victory."

My look darkened at him warningly, ready to slap him in the face. "You jerk."

My insults didn't affect him, though; he just shrugged his shoulders once again and titled his head a bit to the right, his crimson orbs glistering in mischievousness from behind his locks.

He huffed softly under his breath. "Good luck with walking around the camp." And just like that, Natsume turned his back to me and left me alone.

I sighed loudly in frustration at what just happened. I decided to let him walk away; I'd only waste my time if I went after him.

I brushed my fingers on the spot where the hickey was, biting the insides of my cheek. "A mark of victory, huh…?" I swallowed loudly and sucked in some breath before exhaling it again, resting my back against the trunk. "I'm so screwed."

* * *

Sam – Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. A lot of things happened now: Sasuke had troubles buying any new hair gel because of Sora. Mikan collided with Natsume in the music shop and Hotaru took some pictures of it, made a copy of it, photo shopped it and put it on the wall to show it to every camp student, and Mikan gets the blame of it. And now, she has to walk around the camp with a huge hickey.

It's of course obvious that, when Sasuke finds out about the whole picture thing, it wouldn't get any better.

lol Thanks for reading and please review, and no flaming.

Much love,  
Unknown Pain


	9. The Beginning of a Love Triangle

**Written by –** Unknown Pain.  
**Disclaimer –** Disclaimed.  
**Note –** There will be some unimportant characters mentioned here.

**The Beat of Love**

"_Music is my soul, my life, I can't live without it. Without music, life would be a mistake." _

-Unknown Pain-

* * *

**-Chapter IX- The Beginning of A Love Triangle-**

I stared with horror at the mirror, seeing that huge dark blue, almost red, spot on my neck. "Unbelievable…" I mumbled to myself and ran my fingers over it, not believing that that bastard named Natsume had made something like that. "Unbelievable!"

"What the hell are you yelling for?" Hotaru's voice suddenly came out of the living. Hearing her footsteps louder with the second, I knew she headed to the bathroom.

The black-haired female showed me an annoyed frown as she stepped through the doorway. "Look!" I said in a high yet frustrated voice, showing her the huge hickey that I got thirty minutes ago.

Upon seeing it, her eyebrow immediately raised in surprise. "Do I even wanna know…?" she commented after some seconds of staring.

"Good-looking jerk made this," I told her, my forehead deeply furrowed and my voice turned into something deeper.

Hotaru rolled her cold eyes away from me, letting me hear a short sigh before she said, "I had to expect that."

I narrowed my eyes. "Oh, really? Well, just so you know, it's _your damn fault_ that this happened to me."

The female immediately eyed me again after she heard that. "My fault…?" she repeated as though she wanted to make sure she heard that right.

Not being afraid for her reaction, I nodded twice. "Yes, your fault," I pointed a small finger at her. "If you didn't make that stupid picture and showed it to every kid that walks around here, Good-looking jerk wouldn't have thought that I asked you to do that so I'd get a point for the challenge we're having, and he wouldn't give me the so-called 'mark of victory'!" I said the last sentence while pointing at my neck.

"'Mark of victory'…?" Hotaru raised her eyebrow questionably.

I shifted my eyes to the mirror again, my lips pushed into a thin line. "That's what he called it."

"And you're giving me the blame for all of that." She made it sound like a statement than like a question.

I faced her again, this time with a small glare. "Yes!"

"For your information, I was helping you."

"Helping me? This is more like trying to _kill_ me!" I immediately shrieked back, my look somewhat frustrated and afraid. "Don't forget that we've also got Sasuke walking around here."

Hotaru folded her arms in front of her chest, giving me a look that said I was overreacting. "At least you've got a point for your challenge."

"Like I care about that…" I growled lowly; her comments really didn't help me to make me feel better.

I eyed the mirror again and moaned loudly in disappointment and frustration as I looked at the huge hickey Natsume made. "What can I tell everyone if they see this?"

"Tell them you fell," Hotaru suggested bluntly and simply.

I looked at her from the corners of my narrowed eyes. "As if they'll believe that."

Hotaru raised her eyebrow nonchalantly. "Don't act like the world is going to end; just keep your hair loose the up-coming weeks, and you'll be fine. You've got long hair anyway."

I pouted and put my hair over my shoulders so it'll also cover a part of my neck; even the place where that hickey was. "Maybe," I said, not really being convinced that this would help me.

After a small moment of staring at my own reflection with a helpless expression, I placed my forehead in a frown of irritation and anger. "He's dead."

* * *

"Today it's all about slow dancing!" Mr. Narumi announced happily with a wide, handsome smile on his face, not minding the groans of annoyance and disappointment that appeared out of the students' throats. Even I joined them, really not in the mood for slow dancing.

Narumi ran his fingers through his blonde locks and placed his hands on his hips right after that, his thin eyebrow slightly raised. "Oh, why the long faces?"

"It's too slow!" Koko immediately commented with a small pout. His almost black-haired friend nodded his head in agreement.

"And boring," said another. "Can't we do something else, like, street dance or something?"

Narumi chuckled at what he heard. "Don't you guys know that slow dancing is the perfect way to get close to the person you love…?"

Some girls looked at each other, a bit interested about what our teacher said, while some boys huffed coolly, their backs against the big wall as though they didn't care about a thing.

"Like I care about that," said a male with black hair. "I've got a lot of other ways to get close to a girl." He eyed a girl with his eyebrow raised seductively and his lips curved into a small smirk, obviously talking about her. The girl seemed to notice him because she started to giggle softly in embarrassment.

Our blonde teacher shook his head with the same amusing smile. He clapped into his hands. "Alright, let's make pairs!" He stopped for a moment to let all his students, including me, whine and complain in disappointment before he continued by calling our names, "Koko and Mindy, Mochu and Icé. Uhh… Isa will dance with Shinpachi, Momoko and Daisuke. Ruka will dance with Hotaru, Natsume with Cho and Sasuke will dance with Mikan."

I widened my eyes in surprise yet shock while Hotaru raised her black eyebrow a bit.

The blonde Ruka widened his eyes before he frowned in dismay.

Sasuke just growled deep inside his throat, flickering his narrowed eyes at me as though he wanted to kill me; he probably saw that picture…

"Do you want me dead…?" Natsume almost snarled in a deep voice that dripped from annoyance, glaring daggers at the blonde adult. He tried his best to ignore the happy squeals our Beauty Queen was making.

Narumi wasn't affected by the way the raven-haired male looked at him and just placed his hands on his hips. "Don't be in such a bad mood, Natsume; it'll be fun."

The said lad just tightened his jaw, trying to stop the urge to insult him.

After our teacher was done making the dance pairs, everyone had to walk to their partner.

I slowly made my way to Sasuke, feeling the nervousness already boiling inside of me; I couldn't help to be afraid of him right now. It was obvious he'd knew about that picture Hotaru had made, but did he also had a thought that I made it, like Natsume did?

It soon became clear when I stood in front of him and all I got was a stony glare that didn't show mercy or whatsoever.

"Grab each other and as soon as the music starts, I want you all to dance through the room," Narumi told us when he stood next to the CD player. "And make sure you don't bump into the other couples."

I slightly swallowed nervously, not certain of what I had to do; Sasuke was still looking at me with the same straight yet angry look, his lips pushed into a thin line.

Then, without even saying something, he grabbed my hands into his, placing one on his right shoulder. Even his actions made clear he'd kill me as soon as he got the chance.

As everyone stood ready, Narumi turned on the music and curled his pink lips into a smile when we all started to move around the room elegantly, our feet moving on the slow beat the music was letting us hear.

"Why are you… glaring at me like that?" I questioned after a minute of dancing with him, having enough that his eyes were on me in an evil way; my voice was slow and soft, but I still made sure Sasuke could hear me.

"I've all the right to glare at you like that," he pointed out, his forehead deeply furrowed. I swallowed again, letting my teeth scrape my bottom lip. "You saw the picture, didn't you?"

Sasuke nodded his head. Even though he had his crimson locks covering his eyes, I could still see he had narrowed them. "Why did you make a picture like that, anyway? That thing is showing that I'm gay, which I'm _certainly_ not."

I started to frown at him, annoyed about the fact that he was blaming me for it while I had nothing to do with this. "I never made such things," I hissed harshly through my teeth, trying my best not to make a scene. "I can't even make something like that."

Sasuke gave me a suspicious look, his eyebrow a bit raised; of course he didn't believe a word I said. "Then _who_ did it?"

I immediately opened my mouth as I got the chance to speak, but stopped myself for saying the name I wanted to say, suddenly thinking back at what Hotaru told yesterday.

She only was trying to help me, is what she said, even though it wasn't really the right way.

I closed my mouth and sighed; it'd be bad if I just told on her and let Sasuke go after her.

"I'm sorry," I said after a small moment of silence. "It got out of hand…" I eyed away, showing him that I was feeling quite bad about it.

Slowly, his expression softened a bit, presenting now only annoyance.

The male sighed deeply with a deep frown, our feet still moving around on the floor. "Idiot, why…?"

I shrugged a bit, placing a loose strand of hair behind my ear. "For the challenge I'm having with Natsume…"

Sasuke darkened his expression again. "Because of that? Why the hell did you push me int—?" His dark eyebrow suddenly bounced up in confusion while his gaze was locked on my neck.

I blinked my eyes thrice, wondering what was going on.

His confused look disappeared and a blunt one came into its place. His right brow was still elevated as he flickered his cold-looking eyes to mine. "What's that…?" It almost didn't sound like a question anymore.

I backed away with my head with a confused frown, ready to ask him what he was talking about when suddenly an image flashed through my mind. Directly after that, my heart speed up a bit and my face turned red out of embarrassment. "N-nothing," I threw back as quickly as I could, covering that hickey on my neck with my hand.

Without any trouble, he removed my hand from my neck, keeping it close to his hip with a strong grip. He leaned his head a bit closer, his eyes narrowed so he'd see it better. "Is that… a _hickey_?" he asked while shifting his eyes back to my face.

I just stared at him with my lips slightly parted, not knowing how to respond to that.

The sound of the music suddenly lowered and Narumi's voice could be heard, "Now it's time to switch partners. So slide on to the next one and continue dancing!"

We all did what he said; the one who was standing almost next to me and Sasuke was Koko so I had to go to him, while Sasuke grabbed the hand of Koko's partner.

When everyone was ready, our blonde teacher turned back up the music and we all started to dance on the slow beat again.

I didn't really like Koko so close to me and that he had his eyes locked on only my face, his amused yet challenging smirk never leaving his lips. But, surprisingly, he didn't say anything insulting and just did what he had to do.

After ten minutes, it was time to change partners again. To my utter shock, I had to dance this time with the famous Natsume Hyuuga.

Instead of just going to him and stand in front of him, like I did with the dirty blond haired one, I didn't move from my spot at all; I just looked at the raven-haired male in slight horror, recalling everything in my head of what he did to me yesterday. Even thinking about the way his lips felt on my neck made butterflies appear in my stomach.

While I was freaking out and had my mind filled with thoughts, Natsume just looked at me with an emotionless expression.  
Just out of blue, he grabbed my hand and pulled me towards him. I shrieked out of surprise, swallowing at the way he pushed me against him, our eyes onto each other.

"Good!" Narumi complimented with a wide smile and turned up the music as a sign that we had to dance again.

Our feet moved perfectly on the slow beat but we didn't say anything; Natsume just looked at me with a blunt expression, his raven bangs covering his piercing yet warm eyes, and I just couldn't think of anything else than to look back.

Why did I have to dance with him?

Suddenly, he leaned his face near mine and I gasped as I felt his warm breath tickling my neck. I just closed my eyes and bit my bottom lip, feeling already my face heating up.

I sensed him smirking and hn-ing in amusement. "It's still there, I see…?"

I opened my eyes and frowned deeply at him. I eyed him even though I couldn't see his face, trying to calm down my heart in the meantime. "O-of course," I stuttered, sounding irritated. "This will take weeks."

"Hn," was his only response, obviously not feeling sorry or anything. He still didn't remove his head from my neck.

I stiffened as he blew gently on my neck, making me shiver. "W-what are you doing?" I hissed at him through my teeth, knowing that my face was getting redder with the minute.

I quickly looked around if nobody was looking at us.

"Did it hurt…?" Natsume suddenly questioned me, his voice still as deep as before.

I flickered my eyes back to him and saw that he looked back at me from his eye corners. "Wh-what?" I breathed almost in a whisper.

"That hickey; did I hurt you?" he explained. I nodded twice in a slow way. "A bit…" I said honestly.

I frowned questionably when I suddenly felt someone's gaze on me; the gaze was intimidating and felt like daggers.

I looked around me once again and just when I thought it was Cho who tried to kill me with her looks, I saw it was Sasuke who was dancing with Hotaru not far away from me and Natsume.

Even she had her attention on us but she looked like she didn't really care, while Sasuke's look was anything but happy.

"Served you right," I heard the husky-like voice of Natsume touching my ears and gasped loudly when I suddenly felt his tongue over my neck.

My heart beat started to get into an unhealthy pace, my legs suddenly feeling weak.

"What the hell are you… _doing_?" I somewhat snarled at him with my eyes wide.

Natsume didn't remove his head and kept his body closely to mine in a strong way, as though he didn't want me to push him away yet. "Would I get a point if I manage to get you horny?"

I furrowed my eyes in confusion. "Huh...?" I breathed back softly but as soon as I felt his lips against my skin, I knew what he was talking about. "S-stop!" I commanded, my voice a bit high, and finally managed to push him away from me.

At the same time, the music lowered again and everyone stopped dancing.

"Last time, guys!" Narumi announced.

I stared in the meantime, my face still burning, at Natsume who looked back at me with a nonchalant expression, pretending like nothing had happened.

Hotaru fake-coughed to get our attention. "Looks like I need to dance with you, Kitty Cat," she told him in a nonchalant voice, watching how Natsume's look changed into annoyance.

He growled deeply inside his throat and brushed his fingers through his messy hair. "Great," he reacted and walked to her.

In the meantime, the crimson-haired male made his way towards me. As the two passed each other, they shared a dark glare with each other.

When Sasuke stood in front of me and grabbed my hand, the music turned up again and everyone moved around the dance floor once again.

I looked at Sasuke with my eyebrows slightly raised; his face showed clearly that he was in a bad mood. "What's wrong…?" I dared to ask him. He just threw me a deep frown back. "He made that hickey, didn't he?"

I blinked twice out of surprise, not expecting he'd ask something like that. "I've got… no idea what you're talking about," I said back, swallowing my dry throat afterwards.

Sasuke narrowed his blood-red eyes at me when he found out that I was lying and then, not giving a damn about what my reaction would be, he pushed my long hair over my shoulder to see it again.

The male looked at it as though he was fascinated with it, his crimson eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Then he asked, "Did you like it?"

I blushed out of embarrassment while he shifted his emotionless-looking eyes back to mine. "W-w-why the hell are you asking me such things?"

"Answer me."

"I-I don't know," It was the truth actually: I didn't know how I had to feel back then. It didn't feel horrible when his lips touched my neck, I had to admit that, but did that mean I liked it?

I bit the insides of my cheek, trying to calm my heart down for beating so fast as the pictures of what happened yesterday flashed through my mind. Fine… maybe I did like it a bit, but why would he care?

"I take that as a yes," Sasuke pulled me out of his thoughts, his lips pushed into an irritated line.

It was silence between us after that; the male just looked at me, waiting somewhat patiently for what I had to say next, while I just looked at our moving feet.

Sasuke looked around for a moment as if he was searching someone and when he found what he was looking for, his attention locked on me again.

Without saying something, he let out a long yet tired sigh and placed suddenly his head on my shoulder, making me stiffen.

"Sasuke…?" I wondered if something was wrong. "Be quiet." I got back and right after that, I felt his lips softly touching my neck before his teeth.

My eyed widened and I flinched out of pain when he bit down hard on my skin. "Ah, stop!" I said in a harsh whisper, still not wanting to make a big scene in front of my classmates. But the lad didn't respond; instead of that, he dug his teeth even further into my skin, lapping the spot sometimes with his tongue.

I felt that someone was watching us; someone angry and irritated but I couldn't see who.

Finally, he freed himself from my neck and, as if he knew that, the music stopped. Narumi clapped in his hands with a wide smile as everyone halted their steps and turned their attention to our blonde teacher.

While the adult gave us compliments and told us that he was very proud of us, I ran my fingers on the throbbing spot on my neck where Sasuke bit me. I glared at him. "You bastard," I said, hoping that our dancing teacher wouldn't hear me. "What the hell did you do?"

Sasuke looked at me from his eye corners. "Pay back," he said in a nonchalant tone, causing me to gape at him in utter surprise. "'Pay back'?"

The bell rang, all of a sudden, and everyone hurried out of the dance room to outside. Sasuke did so as well; he walked with his hands into his pockets and his pace slow and cool, like nothing had happened.

Natsume walked after him with Koko, Mochu and Ruka, and slowed down his pace when he walked next to the crimson-haired boy. He glared at the male next to him the best he could. "What the _fuck_ were you doing?" I heard him growling, his voice dripping of the anger.

Sasuke just smirked at him, not being affected at how dark Natsume's expression was; he was acting like he knew Natsume saw us. "Why, jealous..?" They stepped outside the room, continuing their conversation that I couldn't hear anymore.

I cursed under my breath, biting my upper lip as I realized that the piercing gaze I just felt belonged to Natsume. Some seconds later, I massaged my temples to calm myself a bit and to figure out how I'd get myself out of this mess.

"What were you two doing?" Hotaru asked me when she popped up in front of me, her arms folded in front of her chest. She gave me a slight suspicious look, her eyes behind her black bangs.

"Huh…?"

"You and Sasuke."

I immediately blushed in embarrassment and looked away to the floor. I bit my bottom lip in the meantime. "He… uhh…" I stammered, not finding the right words to tell her the embarrassing story. Hotaru only raised her eyebrow, her expression still the same.

She took a step closer to me and removed my hand off my neck, seeing the throbbing bite mark. Her black brows furrowed in surprise upon seeing that and shifted her emotionless amethyst orbs back to mine amber ones. "He _bit_ you…?"

I cleared my throat in a silent manner, nodding my head afterwards to answer her question; I couldn't believe it either.

"Why the hell did he bite you?"

"Because of those damn pictures," My voice was set in something low because of the annoyance that started to boil up inside of me. "He said it was a pay back."

Hotaru turned her attention back to the bite mark Sasuke made and leaned her face a bit to the left in thought. "Did he see the hickey that Kitty Cat made…?"

I just nodded my head, my forehead deeply frowned.

"Then I think his only goal wasn't to get you back, but also to see that other perverted-minded guy's reaction."

"By doing this?" I almost shrieked in a high voice. "This freaking hurts! Tell me, how deep is it?"

"Pretty deep," Hotaru said honestly. "If he had bitten any longer, he'd have drawn blood."

I gave her a surprised stare and placed my hand on the bite mark again. "Seriously? Don't tell me that this will take weeks to disappear…"

Hotaru held her shoulders up and started to head to the exit of the dancing room; I followed her quickly, wanting a better answer. "Hotaru!"

"I don't know how long it will take," the said female returned, her voice a bit irritated. "I told you he was a vampire, didn't I?"

I sighed deeply and placed my hair in front of my shoulders so those embarrassing spots wouldn't be seen. "I'm so screwed! Why the hell did they do _this_ to get me back? They also could throw water on me or let me fall or something."

Hotaru shook her head in an unpleased way, as though I was being stupid. She ran her fingers through her short locks. "I can't believe you're so dense." I fully glared at her, not in the mood for her to throw insults at me. "What is that supposed to mean?"

We sat down on a bench near the first building. "Can't you tell they both have a reason to do those things to you?" She crossed her slender legs.

"Yeah, they wanted to get me back," I pointed out in a cocky voice, rolling my eyes away from her for a split second in the meantime.

Another long yet annoyed sigh escaped her thin lips as she shook her head again. "Not only that."

I only raised my eyebrow questionably. "Kitty Cat likes to have your attention and I know that he's feeling something for you, something that makes him think you're interesting and makes him angry if he sees you with other guys. He made the hickey not only to humiliate you and to get you back for the pictures, but also to let everyone know that you're already in possession of someone." She said as she half-faced me.

My heart started to beat slightly faster at what I heard. While my cheeks started to get a red color, I stared at my best friend in utter shock, not believing what she said. "T-that's not true… He did it for the challenge…"

"He said that to get a reason to hide his real purpose," she corrected me, placing some black locks behind her ear.

I stared at her in disbelief, my lips slightly parted. I was trying to get everything in my head and to think of something that made Hotaru theory wrong. But… everything she said _made sense_.

"With Dracula," Hotaru continued. She faced the front for a moment, watching the other camp students passing us. "I think he's starting to like you, and even though I didn't see it happen, I'm pretty sure he got quite irritated when he found out that Kitty Cat made that hickey."

I agreed with her mentally, still looking at her without moving my face or blinking once.

"I'm sure when he knew that Kitty Cat made such thing to get you back for the pictures, he started to get an idea of his own not only to get you back, but to mimic his enemy as well."

I licked my dry lips, shaking my head for a split moment to get everything she said in my head. "W-wait… you're saying what?" I didn't speak any further because Hotaru knew what I meant; she nodded her head and faced me properly. "Sasuke wanted to challenge Natsume to let him know that he's not the only one who wants you."

I blushed even more at how she said the sentence and quickly hit my face in my hands. "I can't believe it…" I said in a soft whisper and ran my hands all over my face. I ended up pushing my long, loose auburn hair backwards.

Hotaru her eyebrows raised for a split second while she shrugged her shoulders. She uncrossed her legs, never letting her eyes leave me. "Hate to say it, but it looks like you've found yourself in a love triangle."

* * *

Sam – Looks like Mikan has found herself in more shit she never thought and wanted to happen. She's not only walking around with a hickey from the famous Black Cat, but now she got also a _bite mark_ of a certain crimson-haired male. And without even realizing it, she stepped straight into something that's beginning to form into a love triangle.

No one said that being in a music camp was so stressful and now the only question is: who's gonna win? If you think good about it then finding the answer is pretty simple. ; ]

Stay tuned for the next chapter and please leave a review that's filled with love. 8D

Much love,  
Unknown Pain


	10. The Right Way to End

**Written by –** Unknown Pain.  
**Disclaimer –** Disclaimed.

**The Beat of Love**

"_Music is my soul, my life, I can't live without it. Without music, life would be a mistake." _

-Unknown Pain-

* * *

**-Chapter X – The Right Way to End-**

I huffed while letting my head fall back on my pillows. I stared at the white ceiling as though it was the most interesting thing ever.

The words Hotaru told me echoed through my mind ever since she said them.

It sounded so annoying and unconvincing, but they also made sense. But still, a love triangle with Sasuke and Natsume… It sounded so cliché, stupid, and unbelievable at the same time.

Only thinking about it made me want to laugh. But I had a slight feeling of worry inside of me, too.

I placed my hands on the bite mark Sasuke created and the hickey Natsume made, sucking on the insides of my cheek; it was _impossible_ for them to like me. Natsume only did it for the challenge and Sasuke did it to provoke him: they were rivals after all.

I groaned and placed my arms over my eyes; even my words didn't sound convincing.

* * *

"Tomorrow's the big day!" Chika somewhat chimed, placing her feet on her and her sisters' couch. Her step-sister nodded her head happily. "Uh-huh, I can't wait!"

Chieko chuckled a bit. She walked behind the couch and put her hands on her sisters' shoulders. "We're going to make sure they'll never forget it, just like last time."

I smiled at the way Chieko tried to encourage the others, at the same time finding cute how close they were to each other.

"What's the time the performance starts?" Hotaru asked, sitting next to me on the smaller couch in front of them, her emotionless eyes locked on the three sisters.

Chika eyed her and shrugged. "It's after dinner, so around seven or eight."

"Do you think a lot of people would come watching you?" I questioned.

Chieko nodded her head. "Of course! Even the Camp Staff will come."

Suddenly, Chiharu blinked her eyes and leaned to the front, her elbows leaning on her bare knees. While I blinked my eyes in confusion, the female narrowed their own somewhat suspiciously, as though she saw something that didn't look quite right to her.

"W-what…?" I asked slowly, not liking the way she looked.

"Mikan," she returned, cocking her head a bit to the left as she pointed a small index finger to my neck. "What's that on your neck?"

I stared at her in horror, feeling my life draining away as all the attention shifted to me.

I mentally cursed, trying to think of an escape in the meantime; how the hell did she see that? My hair was in front of it!

Chieko and Chika raised their eyebrow suspiciously, waiting peacefully for me to explain what those things were on my neck.

I eyed Hotaru sideways, screaming in my mind for her help, but she just bluntly looked back at me like she's curious how I was going to pull myself out of this mess.

Really, sometimes I wondered how the two of us started to be friends.

"Uhm…" I finally began my sentence to break the silence the five of us were having, and cleared my throat awkwardly. "I-I fell."

The three Mori's stared at me bluntly while Hotaru rolled her amethyst eyes, shaking her head in displeasure.

"If you fell," Chika started in a matter-of-factly voice, almost frowning. "Then tell me what the hell that other thing is on your neck."

Wide-eyed, I stared at her; I forgot about the bite mark!

Chieko pressed an amused smirk on her pink lips. "Mikan, do you, by any chance, have a boyfriend?" My face immediately got red out of embarrassment. I shook my head like a crazy person to make sure that thought would go away forever. "O-of course not!" I snarled and grabbed my hair to cover the hickey and the bite mark again. "This is nothing, really."

"Right, that's what you say," the brown-haired female pointed out simply, making me pout slightly in disappointed that she didn't believe me.

I refused to tell them what happened to me; the story about Natsume giving me a hickey wouldn't be the problem, but Sasuke's bite mark was. They definitely would go to him or think wrongly, and I didn't want Chieko to be hurt because I knew she loved him more than anything.

"Fine, don't believe me then," I said with my nose a bit high in the air and stood up from the couch, heading towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Chiharu said with her dark blonde eyebrows raised out of surprise.

I grabbed the doorknob and turned my face to the back. "I'm going to take a shower and then I think I'm going to get some sleep. I see you guys tomorrow."

The three sisters just looked at me. When I smiled to signify that I wasn't mad or anything, they presented me a smile back and nodded at the same time.

"Okay, sleep well!" Chieko and Chiharu chirped in unison while Chika just said in a simple yet cool voice, "See you later."

"I'll come soon too," Hotaru told me before I could even ask. With two nods, I opened the door and left the Mori's dorm.

When I was back into my dorm, I started to remove the hair band that held my bangs back while heading to my bedroom.

Just as I wanted to remove my t-shirt, I noticed something and shifted my attention over to my window.

I blinked in confusion at the light coming from the building where we always had Dancing class and just out of curiosity, I put my t-shirt back on and headed outside.

As I neared the building, the music could already be heard.

I carefully opened the door, searching for the one who was in here. It surprised me to see the one and only Natsume, standing in the centre of the big room, doing some difficult-looking dance moves to the exact same beat as the music.

I watched him in amazement and didn't notice that after a small minute, I had opened the door even further, making it easier to be seen.

His rare eyes suddenly flickered from his reflection in the urge mirror to mine, and he halted his steps.

A small smirk appeared on his lips and the male cocked his brow up in a cocky manner. "I wonder, since when did I get stalked by you?"

After some blinking with my eyes out of surprise, I glared at him out of irritation. I watched how he headed to the CD player and turned the thing off.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I returned as Natsume picked up the white towel that lay on the same table the CD player stood on. He pressed it against his damping face. "You were watching me, weren't you…?"

I blushed straight away as his deep words flew through my ears. "O-of course not… I was just curious who about was still in here this late."

Natsume snorted in disbelief, dabbing his neck with the towel. "Right."

"What are you doing here anyway?" I questioned after clearing my throat awkwardly.

He shrugged easily. "Practicing."

The male threw the towel on the CD player and made his way to the mirrors, with me following him. The two of us sat down against it.

Natsume half-faced me while I just gazed at the dark-colored floor, wondering why I didn't walk away yet. "That thing is irritating me," he suddenly said with ease, his eyes narrowing at my neck.

I flickered my attention to him in confusion. "Huh?"

"That bite mark."

I frowned and rolled my eyes. "Why? You don't have to walk around with it."

He ran his fingers through his messy locks, his arm placed on his knee. "True, but now my mark doesn't stand out anymore."

Natsume smirked in amusement, not affected at the dark glare I threw at him. "Now that I think about it," he continued and gave me a small matter-of-factly look. "You still haven't got me back on that one." I just glared at him softly; did he really want me to do that?

"If you want a kiss, then just say so," I returned, trying to mimic him a bit.

I curled my lips up into a half smile, half smirk as I remembered what Chika told me.

His eyebrow elevated, signaling me that he didn't know what I was talking about.

I crept closer to him, watching how his face started to drip out confusion. I swallowed lightly and leaned my face closer to his, ignoring the nervousness that started to appear inside of me.

Natsume didn't move his face away as the distance between us reduced into just a mere split, my cheeks already red; my heart had a rapid speed that somewhat made me want to go for it until the end, while a voice mentally remembered me every second that this was for the challenge.

I felt his warm breath tickling my lips. When he finally closed his eyes, the voice in my head started to scream, snapping me back to reality, and I just could move away from him before our lips would touch.

"… Idiot," I managed to say coolly before he looked at me with a small, surprised expression that soon turned into something dark. "You little…" Natsume growled in a deep voice, trying to kill me with his looks as I chuckled.

I pressed my back against the mirror and placed a loose strand of auburn hair behind my ear. "This should count, you know?" I giggled.

He growled once more, this time it sounded more dangerous than the other one. "You've got ten seconds," he said in a deep voice, ignoring my blinks from confusion.

"W-what?" I somewhat laughed at him sheepishly, not believing that he'd chase me just for that.

My eyes widened a bit when he really started to count down. "Oh, come on," I tried and slightly moved away. "Y-you gave me a freaking hickey!"

"Five, four, three," The male made a movement as though he wanted to stand up. Out of reflex, I immediately got away from him.

As soon as I got up, Natsume refused to count to zero and went after me.

I couldn't help to laugh in amusement as he failed to get me, but just when I reached the door to outside, he got a hold of my arm and pulled me back.

He ignored my loud shriek out of shock when he pinned me down on the dark blue floor, holding my hands tightly on each side of my head.

My smile faded away as the two of us stared at each other in silence.

I let a small blush appear on my cheeks before I eyed away. "W-what are you doing…?"

"Just wanted to ask you the same thing," Natsume returned simply.

"I'm not the one who pinned you down."

"Hn, even if you tried you couldn't do that."

I frowned in annoyance. "You're mean," I said honestly, my voice a bit deep.

The male on top of me raised his short brow in a matter-of-factly manner. "I'm mean? Think back to what _you_ did to me four minutes ago, then we'd be talking about being mean."

I snorted almost mockingly. "That's nothing comparing what you did."

Natsume slightly groaned out of irritation. He suddenly placed his head on my shoulder and loosened the tight grip he had around my wrists.

I felt my heart pounding quickly in my chest as his messy locks were tickling a small part of my face and neck, staring at the ceiling as though I saw something moving there.

I didn't know what the hell I was doing; Natsume loosened his grip so much that I could escape. But that'd only a person do who wouldn't like such thing, and I couldn't deny the fact that I actually enjoyed him being so close to me, didn't matter if the scene looked awkward or not.

"I-I don't get it…" I blurted out in a whisper. "Are you only doing this because of the challenge?" Natsume slowly removed his head from my shoulder; the distance between our faces was little. He took a good look at my face before his lip corners curled up.

I stared at him with confusion when he stood up, ready to leave me behind.

"Hey, wait!" I called, not wanting to be left behind like this.

As he halted his steps, waiting for what I had to say, I quickly removed myself from the floor. "You still haven't answered my… question."

Natsume didn't respond immediately; he kept on looking at me with no emotions like usual. But his crimson eyes were different.

He soon huffed coolly and pressed a small smirk on his thin lips. "Maybe." Without giving me a moment to respond, he opened the door and went outside.

* * *

After that moment, I really wasn't safe for Natsume's pranks anymore: he used every chance he got to get me. Sometimes he got a point, sometimes he didn't.

It was like he was determined to make a fool out of me or other reasons he didn't want to say.

Though, it didn't matter to me; all I knew that if I wasn't going to fight back, I'd get messed up.

It was Thursday and not even being five minutes in Singing class, I was already a victim of the famous "tie the shoes of someone together"-prank, that Koko put on me under the orders of Natsume himself.

I got him back by letting him trip at Dancing class, and so it went on _until_ dinner.

It was as though he was tired because he didn't do anything or say anything to me. But his crimson eyes followed me intently, and I knew he was planning something.

After dinner, Hotaru and I headed directly to our room to get ready for the three sister's performance that was going to start in about thirty minutes, and an after-party that'd be held after that.

I brushed my mascara against my eye lashes, staring at my reflection in concentration.

"Done yet?" Hotaru questioned impatiently from behind the bathroom door.

I furrowed my thin eyebrows a bit. "Not yet. How far are they already with the stage?"

"They just finished with it." She said while I picked my eyeliner. "Still not done?" Irritation began to appear in her soft, emotion-like voice.

"Don't act so impatient," I returned sternly. "We've still got twenty minutes before their performance starts!"

"I want to have a good seat."

I rolled my eyes and put down my eyeliner once I was done with it. "I'm coming soon."

I heard her footsteps finally going into the direction of the living room, leaving me alone.

I stared at my loose hair, letting my fingers brushing it gently. I eyed my neck and blushed a bit upon seeing the two marks Sasuke and Natsume left on me. The bite mark was already almost gone but Natsume's hickey was still highly visible.

The scenes of them making those things on my neck flashed through my mind, remembering every touch and feeling.

I bit my lip; they probably didn't know how difficult they make it for me.

I decided to put two low ponytails in my auburn hair to cover up the embarrassing spots and left the bathroom.

I found Hotaru sitting on the couch in the living room, watching MTV to kill time. "Done!" I announced with a smile. She turned her face to mine. "Finally. Can we go now?"

I nodded and walked after her to outside. When we came there, almost all the white, plastic chairs were already taken.

Hotaru frowned in irritation and shot me a glare. "See what you've done?"

I eyed her in surprise. "Me? How is this my fault?"

"Because of you being slow, there aren't anymore seats left."

I pouted, insulted, and quickly looked around to see if there were any chairs left. I smiled widely in relief as I found two almost in the back.

"There are still two left!" I told her while pointing at it, and immediately pulled her with me.

As we managed to claim them as ours, I raised my eyebrow a bit cockily, waiting for her to apologize. Unfortunately, Hotaru snorted arrogantly and focused on the still-darkened stage.

I shrieked in shock as two hands touched my shoulders.

I quickly turned my face to the back, only meeting the emotionless eyes of Natsume. "Good-looking jerk," I first hissed and watch him straighten his back calmly.

I placed my hand on my chest, trying to calm my heart down. "You scared me!"

Natsume's emotionless expression didn't change as he asked, "Did it count?"

"Of course not!" I directly snapped back.

He shrugged at this and made his way to some other empty chairs near us.

Koko and Mochu, of course, followed him with the same challenging smirks they always carried with them. Ruka gently waved at me first before he walked after them, this time his white pet wasn't with him.

I sighed in relief as they didn't do anything. I looked up just when the light of the stage turned on, and the owner of the camp appeared.

The silence echoed as everyone turned their attention to him.

"Welcome everyone!" he said through one of the two microphones, starting his speech. "I'm glad that everyone is here to experience an amazing performance from three of our dear students."

Some students started to cheer excitedly and as it went silent again, Kei continued with a smile, "After a week of waiting, it's finally time. I'm keeping it short this time, so I hope you're all ready. Please give them a loud round of applause; here are Chika, Chieko and Chiharu Mori!"

As Kei put the microphone back on its stander, we did what he told us to do. We started to cheer as the three sisters appeared.

Chieko went to the microphone in the front-left with her electric guitar in her hands, while Chika took the front-right with her bass guitar. Chiharu sat down behind drums that stood in the back between her sisters.

The lights turned off for a moment and the silence appeared again. Then, the light turned back on in an instant, giving us a huge light show as the music started to play.

The music they made was first slow but after a brief moment, the beat went faster and louder, and they began to sing:

* * *

**_Long Kiss Goodbye – Halcali_**

* * *

[1]_ "How long before we see each other again?"  
What made me think that  
_[2]_ You were saying it with a nice expression?  
_[1]_ I pretend that there's nothing bothering me  
I'll listen 'till morning as you make excuses  
_[2]_ Because I want us to be connected_

[3]_ I don't even want to see your face along the Meguro river anymore  
No development will come from this, my cell phone dances  
If it's a goodbye mail, I want to forget about it  
"Hold me tight," but "I want to disappear somewhere,"  
Anytime that you're talking too much you don't seem to notice  
I let you see that "I cry" a little while pretending to be strong  
How well did those tears work on you?_

[4]_ Even though "I want to be loved" in my own way, it fills me, but I can't see you  
I just have the feeling that I'll never see you again…  
I want to tell you that, but I can't find the right words  
Maybe it's okay if I lie, but I can't even say, "Don't go away…"_

[1]_ The strange voice he has when he sneezes  
The screwed up face he has when he laughs  
His habit of rubbing his eyes when he can't stop sweating  
Not matter how you look at it, his personality is boring_

_Our styles aren't similar at all  
He's uselessly shy, a bit in bad taste  
The smirk he has when he lies is annoying  
I figured those out ages ago, it sucks_

[2]_ I just didn't have a boyfriend at that time  
It was just a relationship to kill time with  
Those are the excuses I told me friends  
There's no way I was pursuing him… What? _

_He tried to win me over with his boring jokes  
And I'm sick of his nonstop talking  
I've always locked him out, and now I'm knocking_

[4]_ Even though "I want to be loved" in my own way, it fills me, but I can't see you  
I just have the feeling that I'll never see you again…  
I want to tell you that, but I can't find the right words  
Maybe it's okay if I lie, but I can't even say, "Don't go away…"_

[1/2]_ When our hands come apart  
Will you forget someday…  
About me?_

[3]_ (Love song, love song  
Long kiss goodbye, love song  
Long kiss goodbye, long kiss goodbye  
Love song, love song  
Long kiss goodbye, love song  
Long kiss goodbye, love song)_

_Even though "I want to be loved" in my own way, it fills me, but I can't see you  
I just have the feeling that I'll never see you again…  
_[4]_ I want to tell you that, but I can't find the right words  
Maybe it's okay if I lie, but I can't even say, "Don't go away…"_

[3]_ (Love song, love song  
Long kiss goodbye, love song  
Long kiss goodbye, long kiss goodbye  
Love song, love song  
Long kiss goodbye, love song  
Long kiss goodbye, love song_

_Long kiss goodbye_

_Love song, love song  
Long kiss goodbye, love song  
Long kiss goodbye, long kiss goodbye  
Love song, love song  
Long kiss goodbye, love song  
Long kiss goodbye, love song  
_

_Love…)_

* * *

I gaped at them in surprise, not expecting that they could sing _this_ nicely.  
They sang their words with a smile, their eyes being locked on the audience. They sometimes glanced at each other to signal each other that everything was going well and worked like a true team.

A lot of students clapped along with the beat, enjoying the music.

When it was over, everyone stood up from their seats to give a standing ovation, yelling their names excitedly.

After waving and thanking us, the Mori's left the stage with a beaming smile.

I immediately left Hotaru behind to go after them.

They stood behind the stage as Kei went back on it to give some final words.

"Hey!" I yelled as soon as I found them and got greeted back with a big hug Chieko and Chiharu gave me.

"Yo," Chika returned coolly as she removed her bass from her shoulder, and placed one hand on her hip. "Liked the show?"

"Are you kidding? You were amazing!" I chirped. "I never expected this."

Chieko chuckled at the excitement I showed them. "Thank you," she said with a sweet smile. "I had never thought it'd turn out this nicely. By the way, where's Hotaru?"

"Over there," Chika pointed her index finger at the mentioned girl who walked to us. S

he shot me an irritated glare when she stood next to me. "Thank you for leaving me behind like that." Her voice was still deep as ever.

I laughed sheepishly in embarrassment and somewhat sweat dropped. "Y-yeah… Sorry."

"Well?" Chiharu suddenly asked excitedly, and looked with her innocent-looking eyes curiously to Hotaru. "What did you think of it?"

The female shrugged her shoulder nonchalantly. "It was okay," she responded simply.

Chika grinned happily. "Good enough for me. Let's go to the lounge room in building two and start the after-party!"

Chieko, Chiharu and I cheered in agreement while Hotaru already headed silently to the building.

* * *

The lounge room was really crowded; I think all the camp students were there to experience the Moris' after party.

The loud music was banging out of the big radio that stood in the back of the room. Some were dancing to it while others sat on the couch or somewhere else, trying to talk with one another.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and so did I: I was dancing wildly with Chiharu, Chieko and Chika, not giving a damn that we looked like total retards.

Hotaru was standing at the food table, enjoying herself there.

Chieko suddenly spotted Sasuke and without thinking twice, went to him. She dragged the struggling boy to our group and faced him with an excited smile.

"Dance!" I heard her say as Sasuke raised his dark eyebrow questionably. Surprisingly he let her body move against his. "Why should I?" he yelled back at her; his face already screaming, "NO!"

"Because it's fun!"

A smile automatically appeared on my lips as I saw the two. It was funny yet cute how Chieko tried to flirt with him.

His blood-red eyes flickered to mine and his eyebrows furrowed helplessly, somewhat pleading me to save him. But I just stuck my tongue out at him, liking the scene he was trapped in.

Sasuke's gaze narrowed, as though he was saying, "I'll get you back later."

I gasped in surprise as two muscled arms snaked around my waist and felt my back pressing against something.

I peered over my shoulder quickly, only to meet two crimson eyes gazing back intensely.

"G-Good-looking jerk?" Even though I wanted to yell at him, my voice ended up uncertain. My voice wasn't confident because I had already a feeling that I'd be his victim once again.

Surprisingly, he noticed it and neared his face to my ear, "I won't do anything," he whispered reassuringly, his arms still around my waist that, surprisingly, felt good.

I swallowed and blushed at his warmth. "S-so you're not going to rape me?"

"Only if you want me to." I could expect that kind of answer…

I frowned already in irritation and struggled to get free from his grip. "Let me go!" I said in the meantime, but Natsume kept me close to him.

He huffed amused. I already sensed his famous smirk. "You seriously are an idiot, Polka-dots." I swear, I felt my heart stop at the last part of his sentence.

Polka-dots…? I was wearing a polka-dotted bra at that time, how the _hell_ did he—? "You _pervert_!" I snarled, blushing furiously this time. "Did you _spy_ on me?"

"No, you're showing off your bra straps, moron," I blinked at my right shoulder and saw that the collar of my t-shirt had dropped down so much that you had perfect sight of my bra strap.

I wished I just could disappear and never come back.

"Does this count?" Natsume suddenly asked me; I had the urge to tremble at his breath.

"O-of course not!" I snapped, not missing the amused looks from the three Mori's, and the threatening stares from Cho and Sasuke. "I can't believe you're still busy with this challenge."

"As if I'm the only one," the male retorted matter-of-factly, referring to me.

I peered over my shoulder to let him see my frown. "That's only out of self-defense and to get you back."

"_If_ you're done with the challenge, then kiss me." His voice was emotionless and deep like usual. I stared at him as though he was some sort of alien. "W-what?"

He suddenly twirled me around with ease, letting our faces only be a small inches away from each other. "Kiss me." His voice was demanding.

My eyes fell almost out of my head, my heart almost exploding. "Kiss… you?" Why wasn't there a voice in my head screaming "no" in terror?

"Do it and the challenge will be done; nobody will lose, nobody will win." Natsume told me simply, his face calm.

I just stared at him in silence, not knowing what to say.

"Which one do you prefer: the easy way I just suggested to you, or the hard one?" he continued, his eyes never leaving mine.

I couldn't believe his words, but there wasn't any feeling inside me that made me not want it. His suggestion was tempting to take: just one, embarrassing kiss and I was free to go.

But the whole music camp was inside this room! Would it really make it any better if I pressed my lips to his while everyone could see us?

"T-there're too many people here…" I said slowly, glancing around me in embarrassment.

Natsume huffed and shrugged nonchalantly, as though he actually didn't care about it. "Whatever you want."

His warmth suddenly disappeared and the only thing I could think of to do was watch his back in silence as he disappeared into the dancing crowd.

After staring in his direction for a moment of confusion, I sighed tiredly and brushed a hair lock behind my ear. My eyes narrowed in suspicion: he's planning something, no doubt about that.

* * *

After that moment between me and Natsume, he kept distance from me. He stayed for only fifteen minutes on the couch with those three friends of his and after he (strangely enough) talked to Chiharu, he called his gang and left.

When it was ten PM, Hotaru and I decided that it was time to leave as well.

I yawned as I entered our dorm. I rolled my eyes at the glare Hotaru shot me. "Stop doing that." She commanded.

"I'm sorry!" I returned. "I'm tired, alright?"

Hotaru headed to the kitchen to get something to drink. "Then go to bed." I yawned once again and tried to cover it with my mouth, my eyes starting to feel heavy.

Maybe it was indeed time to sleep.

"Fine, fine," I muttered in defeat and made my way to my bedroom.

Just when I was ready to plop onto my soft sheets, I noticed something was missing. Staring at my bed for a moment, I gasped in horror as I realized that it was my _mattress_.

"What the—?" I breathed and felt the tiredness draining out of me. I stared with widened eyes at my pillows and sheets which lay messily on the floor.

I started to blink a couple of times to make sure I wasn't imagining things. And after a moment I had to believe that my mattress was indeed _stolen_.

"HOTARU!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, acting as though I saw some scary creature of some kind.

Surprisingly, it took Hotaru only three seconds to stand next to me. "What?" she snarled darkly; she always hated it when I screamed her name like that.

I pointed a shivering finger at the place my mattress always had to be. My friend followed it and raised her black eyebrow bluntly. "What did you do?" was the "soothing" comment I got.

"I didn't do anything!" I snapped highly, glaring the best I could. "I just got here! Like I'm going to put my own mattress away like this—someone stole it!"

A frown appeared on Hotaru's forehead, looking at me like I was the stupidest girl on earth, her face unmoved. "You think your mattress got _stolen_…?"

"Well do you have another explanation?" I retorted matter-of-factly.

Hotaru folded her arms in front of her chest. "Who's stupid enough to want to sleep on _your mattress_?"

I held my shoulders up, still freaking out. "How the hell am I supposed to know? It must be someone in the ca—" I abruptly halted my words as a face flashed through my mind.

I lowered my shoulders as the anger rose inside of me.

Hotaru raised a questionable brow.

"I already have a feeling about who's got my mattress," I told her, my voice dripping of irritation.

"And…?"

"Do you know Good-looking jerk's dorm number?" I "answered" her question.

The female gave me a quite surprised look back. "You think Kitty-Cat did it?"

"Well, who else? He's really busy with that challenge these days; it's the only possible option."

"He doesn't even know where our dorm is," Hotaru pointed out somewhat cockily. I just frowned, highly believing that Natsume was the culprit.

"It has to be him," I still continued and finally got Hotaru roll her eyes away, sighing slowly in defeat. "Fine. If you really think so, then go outside."

"Outside?" I returned confusingly. She nodded. "This is the typical 'grab someone's mattress and put it in a tree'-prank."

I widened my eyes in shock. "He put my mattress in a _tree_?" My voice was a bit higher than usual.

Her eyebrow raised matter-of-factly. "Yeah, that's the whole point of the prank." She started to shrug nonchalantly and brushed her thin fingers through her tomboyish hair. "Or he's using it as his own mattress."

_That_ was even worse.

I sighed in irritation and strode out of my room, but halted when I reached the door opening; what if he was also outside? He'd definitely do things…

I already felt my heart pounding quickly by thinking about it.

"U-uhm… Hotaru?" I slowly twirled around to meet her questionable face. "Can you go with me?" Her eyebrows lowered a bit.

"Please…?" I added as she just kept looking at me with that blunt expression of hers.

After a moment, she sighed a bit in frustration and placed a lock behind her ear. "I'm not even going to ask you why," she muttered when passing me.

I pressed a smile on my lips and followed her steps to outside.

I felt quite relieved as I realized the whole camp grounds were deserted. That way no one would see us looking for my mattress.

Hotaru and I looked at almost every tree we passed, hoping to see my mattress. But we had no luck.

I exhaled tiredly through my nostrils after almost ten minutes and cursed the tree I stood in front of mentally, disappointed that I hadn't found my mattress yet.

"Did you find anything yet?" I questioned at Hotaru, who stood by a tree not far away from where I was standing.

She turned to me and shook her head to respond.

"Dammit, Natsume," I grumbled underneath my breath, flipping my hair backwards.

"Maybe he had put it somewhere in a place you're familiar with," Hotaru suggested as soon as she stood next to me again.

I looked at her in silence, thinking about it; a place I'm familiar with?

I blinked my eyes as I found the answer. "The sakura tree…" I muttered lowly, not entirely sure of it. With one nod, Hotaru already headed to it. I followed her with a quick pace, wishing my mattress would be there.

As we stood in front of the big tree, we stared bluntly at Sasuke who sat calmly on _my_ mattress, which lay on the biggest trunk.

"You!" I spat in anger and pointed at him. His eyebrow cocked up as he saw my angry finger. "Yo."

"What the hell are you doing on my _mattress_?"

This time, both his eyebrows elevated in surprise. He eyed the object I mentioned. "So this is yours." I didn't know whether he was asking me or was making a statement.

"Yes!" I returned with the same glare on my face. "So give it back, you thief!"

Sasuke made a frown, insulted. "'Thief'…? What's that supposed to mean? Don't think I stole it from your bed or something, and put it here to make this place more comfortable." My eyebrows lowered at his story.

"I found this thing here, and besides," he continued. "I don't even know what your dorm number is." I felt stupid for accusing him just like that…

"So…" I swallowed awkwardly and ran my fingers through my bangs. "You don't know who did it?" Sasuke shook his head to answer.

"Now that that's solved I'm going back to our room," Hotaru said dryly and placed a black lock behind her left ear. I gave her a surprised look. "Huh…? But what about my mattress?"

She already had turned around. "Vampire Boy can give you a hand," Sasuke narrowed his blood-shaded eyes at the nickname.

I called her name in protest, not wanting to be alone with the male, but she just pretended to be deaf and kept on moving her feet into the direction of our building.

I let out a loud sigh of defeat and scratched the back of my head. I turned my face back into the front, "So, can you—?" I gasped in surprise as I looked right into his dark eyes.

"What did he say to you?" he questioned before I could even ask him what he wanted. I furrowed my eyebrows a bit in thought, not knowing what he meant. "W-who?"

"Natsume."

Right, he saw us…

"U-uhmm… Nothing important," I responded with a small blush, and heard Natsume's words already in my head.

Sasuke furrowed his forehead in irritation as he caught a glimpse of my blush, and pressed his lips into a thin line.

My confusion only became more when he looked at me as though I did something bad to him. "Why… are you glaring at me like that…?"

"I don't get it…" he grumbled after a brief silence.

I shook my head almost unnoticeably. "What are you—?" I shrieked as Sasuke suddenly pulled me against him.

I blushed again when my face touched his, with gel covered, hard locks. "S-Sasuke, what the hell?" I somewhat uttered and wanted to escape, until his head lay still on my shoulder and his arms were locked tightly around me.

"What is it that he has… and I don't?" he whispered against my neck. Was he still talking about Natsume?

We stood like this for a long moment; I didn't know if I had to push him away or just let him have it his way, nor did I know what had gotten into him.

I suddenly felt his tongue brushing over my skin and I gasped in shock, my muscles tensing up.

His lips went over the spot where his bite mark was and a sudden fear of him wanting to make a new one appeared inside of me.

"S-stop…" I tried to push Sasuke away, but he didn't even budge; his arms were tightly around me as though he was afraid to lose me.

He suddenly stopped and swallowed thickly. With one gentle kiss on my neck, his slight muscled arms disappeared around me.

Speechless, I stared at the male who jumped back into the tree and grabbed the white mattress like nothing happened.

"What… are you doing?" I asked in a too-soft voice as Sasuke passed me while carrying the object above his head.

His blood-red eyes found mine amber ones. I failed to hide the surprise as I saw his blunt expression, while he looked at me with full emotions only one minute ago.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" he returned in his usual voice and continued to walk to the third building.

"A-ah…" I quickly walked after the teen, not knowing if I had to thank him or just stay silent.

As we almost were at the big door that'd lead us into the building, I couldn't help to glance at him from my eye corners; his gaze were fixed on where he was walking, his expression slightly turned into irritation and… hurt.

So were Hotaru words about Sasuke being in love with me true…?

"By the way," Sasuke halted his steps when he stood in front of the door, signalling me to open it. He continued when he stood in the door opening, "I think I know who did this."

My expression lightened up. "Really? Who?"

The lad slightly turned around. "Natsume." A sigh made its way out of my mouth. "I already figured…"

"So go to him and confront him about it."

My thin brow raised and I gave him the "are-you-stupid?" look. "You're kidding, right? It's gonna be my funeral if I go to him and besides, I don't know what dorm number he has."

"Room 200, building two," Sasuke responded simply. "And don't you want to get him back for this?"

"Yeah, I do, but…" I couldn't think of any excuses. I was curious of what would happen if I went to him, but also a bit afraid.

"You aren't afraid of him, are you?" Sasuke raised his crimson eyebrow suspiciously.

"Of course not!" I lied, my eyebrows furrowed to make my reaction more credible.

The male blew some stray locks away from his eyes. "Then go to him." I narrowed my eyes somewhat suspiciously and in confusion. Was he up to something?

"Why do you—?" I tried to ask, my head titled a bit to the left, but Sasuke didn't let me finish, "Just go," he demanded curtly. He slightly furrowed his forehead in annoyance. "I'll bring this thing back to your room."

Seeing in his eyes that he'd never let me pass him, I nodded my head slowly. "Fine…" I said unsecure and turned around, making my way to the room he mentioned.

* * *

I knocked nervously on the brown door, glancing at the small sign board at the left that had the number 200 on it.

In the moment I waited for the door to open, I was planning how to react to Natsume. I was thinking of yelling, demanding him to apologize for the fact he stole and dirtied my mattress, but strangely enough the anger I felt a moment ago was completely gone.

I didn't even know what I was doing here.

A voice called me, saying that I still had the chance to run now while the door was still closed. But just when I wanted to move my legs, the door opened.

It startled me to look right into the ocean-blue eyes of Ruka.

His blonde eyebrows raised in surprise as he saw me. "Mikan…?"

"U-uhh… Hey," I managed to stammer and licked my dry lips nervously. "Is Natsume there?" Ruka's confused expression only got more but he nodded nonetheless. "Yeah, wait here."

He disappeared into the room again, called his friend's name and told him that someone was waiting for him.

The raven-haired male his annoyed grumbles could be heard as he approached the open-standing door. "What do you—?" he wanted to growl but as soon as our eyes crossed paths, his mouth closed.

"You…" Natsume softly muttered after a brief silence and furrowed his forehead questionably. "What are you doing here…?"

My heart pounded nervously and I swallowed my dry throat. Why did I listen to Sasuke?

"Well?" Natsume pushed impatiently and leaned with his right shoulder against the door way for support.

"I-I found the mattress," I decided to say. His blunt expression didn't change, "So?"

"That… you stole."

This made him frown, alert. "How did you know?"

I licked my lips awkwardly. "Because you're the only guy I know who… has the nerve to do such things."

His eyebrow elevated in agreement. He folded his arms in front of his muscled chest, his shoulder still leaning against the stanchion. "And you're not mad?"

I slowly shook my head to answer.

The awkward silence began; I didn't know what to say or do anymore while Natsume just kept on eyeing me, obviously waiting for more, his eyes never blinking.

I cursed my heart for beginning to pound so fast and the blush that covered my cheeks through his intense stare.

"I-I gotta go…" I muttered without making eye contact, and hurried quickly to the door.

"Oi," he called some seconds later. "Wait."

I mentally huffed at that; like I was going to stop and walk back to him now when I had the chance to escape the embarrassment.

"Oi!" I ignored his voice the best I could. But just when I had my hand on the heck, Natsume grabbed my arm and pulled me towards him.

I immediately pushed myself away from him, finding it dangerous to be so close to him. "W-what is it?" I asked in a higher voice than I wanted.

"You forgot something," the male responded calmly, not missing my still-red face. I furrowed my forehead in confusion. "'Forgot something'…?" I repeated slowly. "Like what?"

Natsume sighed in irritation and flipped his messy bangs backwards. "Don't you remember what the score is?"

I gave him a small matter-of-factly look and swallowed. "Y-yeah, it's 9-9."

"Plus the 'mattress prank'."

"9-10…"

He curled his lips into an amused smirk as I widened my gaze and gasped, before covering my mouth. Oh no!

"Remember what the deal was?" Natsume took a step forward while I felt the temperature inside of me getting higher again. I could've said no but instead I nodded my head twice, my eyes still big.

I let the distance between us become just a small gap of space, feeling myself stiffening out of anxiety.

We stared at each other for just a brief silent moment before I shook my head nervously. "W-w-why do I have to start first?" My sentence startled me; why didn't I just say no?

There was no voice in my head, or feeling in my chest that told me to push him away… Did that mean I really wanted a kiss from him?

"Those were the rules," Natsume returned, his voice deep; he was a bit irritated that I made such a fuss about this. "The loser has to do it."

I bit the insides of my cheek, acting as though I was about to make the most difficult decision in my life.

Natsume's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "You have kissed before, right?"

"O-of course I have!" I sneered, not wanting him to think that I haven't had any love experience yet.

"Then what's the big deal?"

I lowered my head a bit, still looking at him from behind my bangs. "It's… difficult, alright?"

Natsume rolled his crimson eyes away from me. "You had to think of that before you suggested this."

I glared softly, facing the older teen properly again. "Like I knew I'd lose."

He reduced the gap we were having a bit more. "Well, you did."

I stared right into his eyes, ignoring the way my cheeks were burning furiously. I started to sigh, not seeing an escape from this. "Y-you're right…" My voice was set into a whisper.

The sound of my fast heart beat was echoing through my ears as I grabbed his arms for support, slowly reducing the distance between our faces.

I listened to the voice in my head that encouraged me to do it and slowly, I closed my eyes.

I shivered as I came to the point where his breathing tickled my lips. My movement were still slow, probably too slow if it came to Natsume's opinion because _he_ suddenly became the one who closed the gap between us.

My eyes widened out of shock at this and I let my muscles tense up as his lips started to brush over mine.

I tightened the grip around his arms as my lips moved a bit with his, causing him to open his eyes.

We looked at each other for only a small moment before Natsume removed his lips from mine.

But in only a second, as though someone else had control over my body, I kissed him again, making sure my arms were wrapped around his neck so he had no chance to get away.

* * *

Sam – And with that, they had ended the challenge they were having. : ) But this doesn't mean it'll end here: there are still much things to come, of course.

And no, this kiss doesn't make Natsume and Mikan a couple yet… But they will be pretty soon. ;)

Oh and say thanks to Sasuke because if he didn't send Mikan to Natsume, this might have never happened. ^^

Btw, that part where the song lyrics are. The _[1]_ stands for Chieko, the _[2]_ stands for Chiharu singing and the _[3]_ for Chika.

Thanks for reading, hope you liked it and please review!

Much love,  
Unknown Pain


	11. Words of Love

**Written by –** Unknown Pain.  
**Disclaimer –** Disclaimed.

**The Beat of Love**

"_Music is my soul, my life, I can't live without it. Without music, life would be a mistake." _

-Unknown Pain-

* * *

**-Chapter XI – Words of Love-**

I sat silently on my bed, staring bluntly at the floor. I bit my lip, not knowing anymore whether the kiss was real or not. It was just fifteen minutes ago, and yet, it felt like a week had already passed.

I blushed as flashbacks appeared in my mind again and quickly shook my head to get rid of them.

Why, I wondered, didn't I go away when I had the chance? We stood there for like an eternity and there were a lot of chances when Natsume stopped kissing me, but every time I pulled him back for more.

I mentally asked myself the same question again, even though I already knew the answer: everything felt just too right and good.

I licked my lips and slowly touched it with two fingers, still feeling the presence of his lips.

My heartbeat got faster as an urge for doing it again tickled my body. Maybe even more than just "tickled".

My sudden thoughts and feelings shocked me and I let myself fall backwards, my eyes closed.

I took a deep breath, trying to empty my mind. But only after a short moment, Natsume appeared before my eyes, making everything worse.

I opened them, staring at the plain ceiling. "You're such an idiot," a voice in my head told me. I mentally nodded in agreement: I was indeed an idiot for falling in love with a guy like him.

I realized that now, but wished I had never found out about it.

I placed my arms over my head, urging to cry; the thing I always was positive about that it wouldn't happen to me, happened…

The three Mori's and Hotaru would definitely shoot me with the "I-told-you-so" talk. But why would I tell them?

Natsume's famous with girls that are even prettier than me. And besides, he only saw me as a toy, nothing more. Even if I actually tried to win him for myself, he'd never return my feelings.

I was standing in front of a big wall that just wouldn't break.

I blew out some air between my lips, brushing my both hands through my long hair. Please let these last weeks go by quickly.

* * *

"Where's Narumi?" Chieko asked, looking at her reflection in the big mirror. Her eyebrows were slightly furrowed to one another in annoyance. "Dancing class has already begun and he's late."

"Same goes for Sasuke," Chika said and placed her hands behind her on the dark blue floor. Chiharu gazed at her step-sisters. "He wasn't at Singing class either…"

I glanced at the three Mori's, secretly eavesdropping on them.

Chieko placed an orange lock behind her right ear. "Maybe he's sick or something?" Chika frowned at that thought. "That boy is never sick. I'm sure he's just being lazy again."

"But if he is sick, I think it'd be a good idea to visit him after class." Chiharu suggested happily and showed a kind smile.

I looked back at the floor, not having a good feeling about it. Sasuke hadn't skipped one class these couple of weeks, so why would he change that now?

Flashbacks of him and me of the previous day flashed through my mind. I bit my lip; could it be…?

"Can you tell me why that Vampire Boy came to our dorm yesterday with your mattress?" Hotaru suddenly asked me, pulling me directly out of my thoughts.

"H-huh…?" I reacted and lowered my head so that my bangs would cover my eyes. "What do you mean?" I smiled to get rid of the suspicious glint in her cold, amethyst eyes while wishing Sasuke hadn't done something stupid to her.

"Last night I found him standing in the door way with _your_ mattress held above his head. He said something about a delivery, went to your room, threw it onto your bed, and left," she told me, her eyes never leaving my reflection.

"H-he was being nice," I returned quickly and raised both my eyebrows. "And weren't you the one who said he could help me bring the mattress back?"

Hotaru ran her fingers through her short, tomboyish hair. "Like I'd know you two would actually listen to me."

"I'm always listening to you…"

"Whatever." She let out a short sigh and then faced me properly. "When I opened the door I was expecting you, not that blood-sucking creature." She narrowed her gaze suspiciously. "So where _were_ you?"

I stared at her with big eyes; I should've expected this! Why hadn't I thought of a good excuse when I had the chance?

Hotaru began to narrow her emotionless eyes. "Well?" She pushed on impatiently. I saw the credence slowly draining from her eyes.

Luckily for me, just before I opened my mouth to stammer the lamest excuse ever, the door suddenly opened. My eyebrows elevated automatically upon seeing the reflections of Natsume and his gang walking in.

The four boys ignored every eye that turned to them as they passed the huge group, looking for a place to sit.

Natsume's dark eyes roamed around and to my shock, stopped on me. I blushed as he realized I was watching him in the mirror.

Ruka, Koko and Mochu followed as their leader headed to my and Hotaru's direction. Just when I thought he was going to sit behind us, he went past us.

My whole body tensed up as Natsume placed his hand on my head. I turned to him, not realizing I was smiling until his own lips curled up into one as well.

Hotaru raised her eyebrow immediately. She turned her attention to the four who sat down on the floor near the three Mori's, before facing me. "What was that," It sounded more like a command than a question.

The blush only deepened and I quickly shrugged my shoulders as an answer.

Hotaru sighed through her nostrils in irritation, brushing her fingers through her short hair. "Kitty Cat has won the challenge, hasn't he?" The female ignored my horror-filled expression, surfacing from her finding about it.

"You were with him last night," she stated. "And you kissed him." And there goes my secret!

"H-how… How did you—?"

"Because I know you," she returned with a roll of her eyes. I lowered my head even more, my heart beating as though it was going to explode from the embarrassment.

"So when are you going to start dating?" Hotaru's blunt expression didn't change. I shot her the best glare I could make. "W-will you just _stop_ it?"

"Sorry I'm late, everyone!" Narumi walked happily through the door with a bright smile that looked like it would never disappear.

A lot of the students grumbled some insults at him and asked if the class would end earlier because of him being late, but Narumi simply ignored them.

"You all know that there are only a couple of weeks to go before this camp year is over," the blonde began as he stood in front of us. "Which is why we're going to make a dance routine for the music competition the camp always has on the last day!"

Narumi was the only one who was excited; not a second after he closed his mouth again, we all began to whine in protest.

"As if we're not busy enough!" a girl shouted.

"Yeah, the other classes are asking a lot from us too!" Chika agreed annoyingly.

"And sir, I've got a performance this Friday!" Cho said.

Narumi gestured with his hands to let the class calm down. "I'm aware of everything and so are all the other teachers. So I'm sure everything will be fine."

Mochu scoffed, running his hand over his almost-bald head. "Like you're the one to talk."

Chieko raised her hand. "How long do we have?"

"We've got six and a half weeks, starting this day," our teacher told, his eyes scanning every one of us. "I know a lot of you are going to do something individual for the music competition, which is not a problem at all. I want you guys to perform as a class to let your parents see what you've learned this year."

Surprisingly, nobody said anything. Noticing it, the blonde smiled and placed his hands on his hips. "So, now that you _finally_ agree with my plan, we'll be getting started." He first ran his fingers through his long locks before he continued, "We're going to do a number with a mix of three dance-types in it: Hip-hop, Street dance and Modern dance. Some parts you have a partner and some parts you don't. Also," His eyes twinkled excitedly behind his bangs. "There will be two who are going to lead the whole dance."

Our teacher started to chuckle amusingly as some of his students sighed in protest, while the others already decided who they were going to be teamed-up with.

There was only a small amount who said they were already nervous and excited about it.

"I hope I'm not going be the lead-dancer," Chiharu said and scratched her cheek thoughtfully. Her oldest sister shrugged her shoulders. "Hmm, I don't know. I think it'd be quite interesting."

"The only thing I care about is who's going to be my partner," Chika said in a calm tone. Koko had heard her and immediately scrambled her way.

"Baby, it's already obvious who's going to be your partner," he said playfully, his lips cracked into a smirk. He pulled her backwards to make sure she'd almost lie with her head on his lap, ignoring her small shriek of surprise. "You're going to dance with _me_, of course." His face was hovering above hers.

The brown-haired female immediately frowned in disgust at what he was trying to do. "Forget it, Koko," she returned in a deep and annoyed voice. "Only a retard would dance with you."

He huffed cockily, making the space between the two a bit larger. "Oh come on, you've danced with me several times before, and you never complained."

"You've got exactly _three_ seconds to let me go and get away from me, before I kill you," she immediately threatened. Koko did what she said, but his smirk didn't disappear.

I giggled in amusement while Hotaru rolled her amethyst eyes away. "He's such an idiot," she muttered, shaking her head two times.

"It's already obvious who'll lead the whole dance," Cho suddenly began, loud enough to get some attention.

I turned my face to the back to look at her and was surprised when she put her hands around Natsume's neck, hugging him from behind.

What the hell was that girl doing?

"We're going to be the lead-dancers," the girl said with a flirty smile. Her lips were close to his left ear. "Right, Natsume?"

I swallowed and bit the insides of my cheek; the anger already furled inside of me.

Natsume didn't move a bit as Cho lay her head on his shoulder, smiling as though he already agreed with what she said.

When I saw his dark expression, I automatically smiled in relief.

"You're ruining my personal space," the lad grumbled darkly at her and peered over his shoulder to face her. Cho blinked her snow-colored eyes. "H-huh…? But—"

"Go away." Natsume commanded, not blinking once as he watched Cho backing away slowly.

She looked around as some of our classmates chuckled and whispered about the little scene they just witnessed. She blushed in embarrassment and actually glared at Natsume, before going back to her own seat with a "humph".

Natsume faced forward again as though nothing had happened, ignoring the amused shoulder pats from Mochu and Koko.

Suddenly, his crimson eyes darted to me. I quickly turned around to hide the fact I was watching him. I saw into the reflection of the mirror that he smirked mischievously, just before he turned to Ruka who began to talk to him.

Narumi clapped into his hands to get the attention back. "I'll be the one who chooses the couples and the lead-dancers."

Of course everyone didn't hesitate to protest but our teacher only found it more amusing than irritating. He placed his index finger to his lips to signal us to be quiet.

"I've made a list of who's going to be whose partners," he said when it was silent again, and grabbed the piece of paper he was talking about from his jean pocket. "Please stand up, everyone."

Everyone did as he said without saying anything.

"As soon as you know your partner, please go to them."

Narumi read the names out loud. Some were happy with the couples the blonde teacher came up with, while others said they rather died than to dance with them.

"Chika Mori with Kokoro Yome."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Chika immediately exclaimed and presented a dark glare when the amused snicker of Koko could be heard.

"Good luck," her older sister said, more joking than serious, while Chiharu giggled softly under her breath.

"Yeah, whatever," the female grunted. With hesitation, she finally walked up to her partner.

"This is going to be fun," the sandy-haired lad said mischievously, his hands hiding in his pockets. Chika narrowed her sky-blue eyes warningly. "Just… shut up."

"Chieko Mori with Sasuke Kakashi." Narumi continued calmly.

The said girl's face lit up as soon as she heard Sasuke's name, but then she blinked. She raised her hand slowly. "Uhm, excuse me, but… Sasuke isn't here right now."

Narumi looked up from his paper and raised his thin brow in surprise. His amethyst eyes scanned the crowd. "Okay then, we'll think something about that later." He turned his attention back to his list. "Chiharu Mori with Mochiage."

Mochu frowned slightly in protest. "Yeah, this is going to be fun," he said sarcastically as the female headed to him.

"Just don't be mean, okay?" she returned. Mochu shrugged nonchalantly. "I won't, I won't."

Narumi announced three couples before he said, "Ruka Nogi is dancing with Hotaru Imai."

Hotaru's black eyebrows lowered and sighed lightly in irritation. After I gave her a pat on the shoulder, she made her way to him.

Ruka made sure to keep his distance from her.

"I won't kill you or anything," she said with a roll of her eyes.

"I won't take any chances," he returned easily. Hotaru actually twitched her lips in amusement.

Finally, after four couples being known, Narumi said the names I had never expected to hear, "Mikan Sakura with Natsume Hyuuga."

My eyes grew out of shock.

The adult put the paper back where it came from, his lips formed into a bright smile. "Who are _also_ going to be the lead-dancers!"

I stared at Narumi as if he was some sort of idiot, ignoring the whispers and all the other surprised and amused reactions around me.

I looked away and swallowed nervously. This was _certainly_ not what I was hoping for.

I slowly faced the direction where Natsume was standing. As though I had to go to some kind of criminal that could kill me any minute, I took a deep breath and finally went to him.

I looked around me and saw all the eyes locked on me. It bothered me but not that much when I realized that Natsume had his dark eyes on me as well.

The butterflies appeared again and I felt my face heating up, everything growing more as the distance between us got less.

His eyes followed me until I stood still next to him, when he gazed back to the blonde teacher in front of the class.

I secretly took a deep breath and exhaled it, placing my hand on my chest. God, I really should stop acting like a hopeless little girl.

"Alright! So, now we know that, let's begin with the first steps of the dance." Narumi eyed Chieko. "Chieko, because your partner is missing, I want you to help me demonstrate."

The said-girl gave the adult a surprised stare. "Wh-what…? Me?" She blushed in embarrassment as our classmates chuckled in amusement. Narumi nodded easily.

Finally, after a long moment of hesitating, she walked to him.

"I heard that the crimson-haired idiot had sent you to me yesterday," Natsume began as soon as Narumi showed us the first moves of the Modern Dance. His voice was kept low so he wouldn't be caught talking.

I looked at him in disbelief. "Wh-who could've told you that?" There was no way someone could have seen me… or us. Could it?

"He told me himself," the male returned nonchalantly, his dark eyes never leaving Narumi and Chieko. "_After_ all those annoying and cocky comments."

"… Sasuke?" I frowned deeply in disbelief, looking away thoughtfully. "Why would he do that? He hates you." I turned back to Natsume. "Which is still a mystery as to why he does, by the way." I didn't even realize how wise and rude I sounded.

Natsume still refused to look at me. He let out a cocky huff and just for a split moment his lip corners elevated. "Why do you wanna know?"

It took me a moment to answer that, "Well… I don't know," I said slowly. "It's just… I never thought people could feel as much hatred as you two have for each other." I tilted my head a bit to the right. "Is it wrong to feel a bit curious about what happened?"

"Yes."

I immediately furrowed my forehead in irritation at his blunt reaction. "Why? Maybe I can help."

His crimson eyes finally rolled to me, his face unmoved. "You can't change what happened in the past."

"No, but maybe I can change the things that are happening now."

He licked his bottom lip and focused back on the front, as if debating if he should do it.

"Okay, now it's your turn to do it yourself," Narumi's voice echoed through the big area. "Grab your partner, look for a spot, and dance!"

I had the urge to dig a hole and throw myself in it; I paid so much attention to Natsume that I didn't even see a _thing_ from Narumi's demonstration.

"I'm screwed…" I muttered to myself while everyone removed themselves from the group. The male turned to me in a slight questionable manner.

"I… haven't really paid attention to what Narumi showed us," I faced him. "I really don't know what to do!"

Natsume's expression stayed calm. "Then just follow me."

I stiffened in surprise when he took a step closer to me, grabbing my hands gently. His eyes never left mine, nor did my eyes left his.

We were doing just the basic steps but I still looked down at our feet, making sure I wouldn't be the one who'd screw up.

"You have to look at me." I automatically blushed at his words, which he made sure that sounded gentle.

"W-why?"

"Because you'll look like an idiot if you don't." I furrowed my brows, insulted.

"Even if you already look like one."

"Hey," I returned and presented him a glare. "And since when were _you_ the expert?" Natsume curled his lip corners up into a mischievous yet amused smirk. "I've been going to this camp for two years already." He suddenly pushed me away, and pulled me back a second later in an elegant manner.

I found myself pressing against his body, our faces just inches away from each other. "It'd only be natural to be an expert." I almost shivered at his breath tickling my lips.

I cleared my throat awkwardly and widened the distance between us. Though, the smile on my lips didn't disappear. "I… still don't understand the whole Sasuke thing," I quickly said to move our attention to something else.

Natsume's expression changed and his eyes immediately rolled away from me. "You're ruining the moment," he said through an annoyed sigh.

His words felt good to hear. It made me much less scared about him liking me, though that didn't mean that I was actually sure about it.

Not wanting to get distracted yet, I continued, "But… aren't you confused about the fact that he told you he was the one who told me to go to you last night, and why he did it in the first place?"

He twirled me around elegantly, ignoring the compliment Narumi gave us. "He's in love with you." His sentence was curt.

Even though I had already suspected it, I couldn't help but to feel surprised about it. It just sounded so weird… "H-how do you know?"

"Because I know him."

"But that still – doesn't explain his reasoning behind this."

Natsume sighed, automatically blowing some stray locks away that had covered his crimson eyes. My heartbeat speed up when he leaned his face closer to mine.

I looked right into his eyes, not missing the annoyance in it. "Just because I've known him almost my whole life, doesn't mean I know what he's thinking. If you really wanna know it that badly, you have to ask him yourself."

* * *

"You two sure looked close," Hotaru commented as we stepped out of the Dancing classroom. I eyed her in confusion, pretending not to know what she was talking about. "Huh?"

"Oh, don't play dumb," Chika continued for her, an amused smirk plastered all over her face. "You did nothing but talk and smile at each other."

I failed to huff coolly. "S-so?"

Chiharu giggled. "Don't worry, Mikan. You two looked really cute together." She smiled innocently, but her soft giggle turned into an amused laugh as she saw my face turning into a deep red color.

Chieko smiled, but (luckily) changed the subject, "I can't believe I had to dance with Narumi."

Chika put a lock behind her left ear and turned to her older sister. "Be glad that you're not teamed up with _Koko_." Her expression was annoyed.

"It's a lot more embarrassing to dance with a teacher, you know," Chieko returned cockily. She threw her long orange locks over her shoulder. "Really, where's Sasuke?"

"Probably in his room, or something." Chika shrugged.

I raised my eyebrows when I caught a glimpse of him at the Sakura tree. "No, he's there." I said and pointed at his favorite tree. Everyone turned their attention to the direction I was pointing at.

Chika sighed slightly in irritation as she saw the crimson-haired male lying nonchalantly on the thickest trunk. "You've got to be kidding me…" She faced us with her eyebrows slightly raised. "Was he there the whole morning?"

"It wouldn't surprise me if he was." Chiharu responded.

Chieko rolled her pink eyes. "Let's go to him then." She leaded the way to him.

When she stood in front of the tree, she placed her hands on her hips sternly, her eyebrows furrowed strictly at the male who seemed to be asleep.

"What," was his "greeting", his voice curt and annoyed. He never removed his hands from behind his head, nor did he open his eyes to look at us.

"Don't 'what' me, Sasuke. Where were you?" The orange-haired retorted with the same strict expression.

"Here," he responded easily.

"The whole morning?" Chiharu asked. The male nodded twice without hesitation.

"Are you going to act like an idiot and skip classes again?" Chika threw at him in annoyance. Surprisingly, Sasuke didn't say anything to that.

"You'll only get into trouble if you do that."

"I don't care," he returned bluntly. Chika frowned deeply at that.

"What is wrong with you all of a sudden, Sasuke?" Chieko asked, slightly glaring. "I thought you'd passed the whole 'I-don't-care-about-this-camp'-crap."

"I just wasn't into the mood to take classes today," Sasuke explained and finally let us see his blood-red eyes. "It isn't a big deal, you know."

"_It is_. This camp year is almost at its end, and you're missing a lot of important stuff. You'll only get into trouble if you keep on doing this."

Suddenly, he furrowed his eyebrows. "I'll handle it myself. I don't need your help."

"Fine!" Chika sneered angrily. "Then we won't. But then don't come to us if you _do_ need our help." She faced her sisters. "Let's go."

She was the first one to turn her back to him and walked away. Chiharu followed her soon after, but it took Chieko a bit longer to go after the others.

The two looked intently at each other. Chieko was the first one to break the eye contact by shaking her head twice in disappointment, and with a sigh she finally followed the other two.

Hotaru went with her, but halted as she noticed that I stayed rooted to my spot.

She turned, only to raise her thin, black eyebrow questionably. Some seconds later, the three Mori's also turned their attention to me.

"Uh, I'll come soon," I told them slowly, slightly afraid of their reactions. "I wanna talk with Sasuke for a bit." I glanced at the male while I said the last sentence; he furrowed his forehead in slight confusion.

Chika was the first one to break the silence, "Go ahead and knock some sense into that idiot." She narrowed her gaze at him when he snorted mockingly, before she, Chiharu, Chieko and Hotaru continued their steps into the direction of the canteen.

"Are you going to scold me too?" Sasuke asked in a deep voice when they were gone. I shook my head, watching him leap off the trunk with ease. "I talked with Natsume this morning."

"Great," he returned sarcastically with a roll of his dark eyes.

"Why did you do it?"

"Do what…?"

I sat down with him against the tree. "Tell him what you did last night."

"Does it matter?" His expression was still as stoic as ever.

"I thought you hated him," I returned a bit confused. Sasuke sighed in irritation and eyed me with a frown. "Go ask Natsume."

"I did, but he pushed me to you."

The crimson-haired male growled underneath his breath. "Of course he did…"

I touched his shoulder with my own to encourage him to tell his story, a small smile on my face. "Come on, tell me; you don't have to feel ashamed or anything."

Instead of a nice look, I received dark scowl. "You're annoying."

I glared in an insulted manner and moved away. "What is wrong with you all of a sudden?" I snapped. Sasuke turned his head away. "Why don't you want to tell me anything? You didn't have any trouble telling Natsume."

He kept his mouth shut but pressed his head against the trunk, eyeing the sky. "Why do you wanna know so badly?"

"Because I'm a part of it, too. And you bragging to Natsume that you're the one who sent me to him just doesn't make any sense to me," I responded with a serious expression.

Sasuke tightened his jaw. "I didn't brag to him," he retorted while looking at me from the sideways of his eyelashes.

"Then tell me anything that will help me understand what's between you two and why you've told me to go to him." I continued to push.

Sasuke turned his eyes back to the sky. "It's a long story," he said almost in a whisper. I shrugged easily. "I've got time."

He eyed me for a long time, as though he was trying to find out if I was sure or not. And then finally, after a deep sigh of frustration, he sat up, bracing himself for what he was going to do.

He placed his right knee almost against his body, putting his right arm on it so he'd still get a cool posture.

"Natsume and I went to the same school, where only stupid rich children could go to. I never liked to go there because I didn't like rich people; they were too snobbish and selfish for my liking. I never actually fit in and I always made to sure to stay in the background," he began his story calmly, his eyes turned forward.

"All our classmates were the same: talking about the same things, mostly liking the same things. But Natsume was totally different, and maybe that was the reason why we started to talk to each other, and we bonded so much that we called each other 'friends'."

Sasuke suddenly furrowed his eyebrows, "I had a huge secret, back then: my siblings and my parents… died in a fire, and I ended up in an orphanage were I had to live for almost a year."

My eyebrows raised in surprise: that was something I never had expected to hear. "I'm so sorry," I said in a whisper, but he just shrugged. "I already accepted it. Kei's the one who had adopted me and made me get used to a rich life. Back then I started to see Natsume as an older brother, and told him everything about my secret. He accepted it without a second thought."

Sasuke bit on the insides of his cheek. "But then, some days later, when I came to school… everyone turned their back on me, calling me names and looking at me with disgust just because of what they found out about me. Natsume just stood there in the crowd, doing nothing when I needed him."

I gave him a sympathized look, picturing everything in my mind. "You think that Natsume told your secret?"

"I don't think it, I _know_ it," he responded harshly, glaring at the green grass as though it was its fault. "We didn't talk or look at each other anymore. The only thing we did was try to hurt one another through insults, and tell lies behind each other's backs."

After a brief pause, he faced me again. "Everything is his fault, Mikan."

I just looked at him in silence. Even though he tried to hide it, his blood-shaded eyes were shining with sadness. I wasn't used to actually see such a side of him.

I faced forward, knowing nothing to say that'd be helpful.

"Do you… know why I walked around a long time without any gel in my hair…?" Sasuke questioned all of a sudden. It was then when I finally have realized that he had his hair back into the way everyone was used to.

He pulled at one of his locks in a slight bored manner in the meantime.

"Yeah, because of Sora you didn't get a chance to by some new gel… Right?"

He put his hand back on his knee. "That was not the only reason." The male refused to make full eye contact with me.

I presented a confused look. "What do you—?"

"I like you…" he blurted out before I had the chance to finish my sentence. He eyed his feet with his forehead deeply frowned in concentration. "More than just a friend."

I gaped at him in utter shock; did he just _confess_ at me? "Sasu—"

"Natsume does too," Sasuke continued quickly, determined to finish his story. He swallowed afterwards.

My heart pounded into a fast beat, and I had trouble believing what I was hearing.

"As soon as we found out that we liked the same girl, we kind off started to compete against each other. I thought I had a chance of winning, but… then I noticed that look you always give him. I realized you had never looked at me that way; and you never will, even if you try." He finally turned his face to me, looking right into my eyes. "The reason why I told you to go to him was because I want you to be happy, even if it means I'm staying behind empty-handed." His voice was deep yet gentle.

I flushed deeply, still gaping at him with the same shocked expression. "Wh-wh—?" was the only things I could manage to say. "W-what—?" I tried again, but was still at a loss for words.

The voice in my head was saying nothing else but "What the hell?" one after the another.

I was really freaking out; how could it turn out into something like this? I had never expected it: nobody would, right?

And what was that about Natsume? I chewed on the insides of my cheek, turning away; could it be true? I hoped for it, but it was difficult to picture it in my mind.

I took a couple of deep breaths, collecting myself slowly but surely again.

I eyed the male and wondered what I could say without offending him.

Sasuke scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Yeah… I know it's stupid…" he muttered. My eyebrows elevated in surprise. "H-how so?"

He chuckled under his breath as though he laughed at himself, before looking at me. "I just confessed to someone who's in love with someone else." Only hearing the last part of the sentence made me blush even more in embarrassment.

"N-no… that's not stupid," I said after a brief pause. Sasuke was hurt, you didn't have to be clever to know that, and I felt guilty about it. "I'm – I'm sorry…"

After a few seconds the thin line he had pressed on his lips turned into a small yet kind smile. "You're an idiot." His voice turned back into the same emotionless tone it always had, but I still could hear some hints of sweetness in it.

It was as though he was saying that it was okay, and I smiled at that. Without thinking, I hugged him and then for the first time, he returned the hug softly.

"Thank you," I said in a whisper, my mouth near his left ear. "For what you've done, for your honesty and for trusting me. And… I'm sorry if I've hurt you." Sasuke only tightened the hug as a response.

* * *

I was glad that Sasuke had told me and felt thankful that he had trusted me with everything. But now I also wanted to hear Natsume's side of the story to understand the whole thing. I was still sure that if I knew the whole story, I could help them.

It was seven PM and I had just sneaked out of the dorm to find him. I made my way to the Dancing classroom, were he usually trained if something important was coming.

I slowly opened the door, not quite sure if Natsume was really there. When I saw him just picking up a towel from the floor and putting it around his neck, my fast heart beating of being uncertain slowed down a bit.

Natsume turned when he saw my reflection in the big mirror. He raised his short brow questionably.

I swallowed awkwardly, trying to ignore the drops of sweat trickling down his face and neck, and the dampened tank top that let more of his muscles stand out. He was _beyond_ being just hot now!

"You look like an idiot," he said, pulling me out of my thoughts. He wiped the side of his face with his towel while his eyes refused to let me go.

I blushed in embarrassment, realizing that I was staring at him the whole time. I shook my head to focus on the main thing I was here for, and quickly put a small smile on my face to show him I came in peace.

"I've talked with Sasuke," I began and walked up to him. Natsume's expression, as expected, immediately darkened. "What did he tell you…?"

"Everything."

"Great…" Natsume pressed his back against the mirror. "You're here to hear my side of the story now?"

I nodded curtly. "Sasuke blames you for everything. And I don't want to join him yet, so I want to hear your side of the story too."

I caught a glimpse of his forehead furrowing in surprise, before he turned his head away. Natsume sighed a bit in frustration and ruffled his hair.

"I'm not to blame for everything," he started with a grunt and eyed me again. "I promised to keep his secret and I never broke it."

I furrowed my eyebrows a bit in confusion. "But then how…?"

"I don't know," Natsume immediately retorted. "It just happened: some days later everyone was talking about it at school. And when Sasuke appeared, they started to yell that he didn't belong there and insult him."

He eyed the floor for a moment. "I wanted to help him but I was too scared of the consequences if I did, so I just walked away. He's never forgiven me for what I did, and I don't blame him," Natsume gazed at me again. "I _did_ feel guilty but my pride prevented me from actually taking the first steps and apologizing to him. But he was too damn stubborn to listen to me anyway. Because of all that, we ended up like this."

I frowned my forehead in thought. "But…" I started slowly. "Don't you want to make up with him?" Natsume shrugged nonchalantly. "Like I said: he's stubborn, so I don't know how to do that or if he even wants it."

I stepped closer to him. "Well, maybe he does want it."

"How would you know?"

"Sasuke – confessed to me…" I said, slightly embarrassed. I played in the meantime with my fingers, afraid of what his reaction would be.

"He did, huh…?" he said deeply. I looked at him. "He was still being nice, you know?"

Natsume rolled his eyes away in irritation. "Right."

"No, I mean, he told me his reason for telling me to go to you yesterday was because he wanted me to be… happy." I automatically blushed a bit.

Natsume kept on looking at me intently, refusing to leave the mirror.

"I'm sure that he wants you to be happy too," I continued with a kind smile. Natsume lowered his eyebrows to make a dry expression. "No, he doesn't. He just wants to be right and wants me to actually go and thank him."

There was a brief silence; I remembered what Sasuke told me about him… I just _had_ to know if it was true or not, "Do you want to?" I questioned, my voice set into a gentle tone. I closed the distance between us some more. "Because I did thank him for what he did."

The atmosphere changed around us into something that felt nice and warm. The distance between us shortened into a mere gap and we both weren't bothered by it; we stared at each other intensely, not saying a word.

My heart was pounding quickly and I was sure Natsume could see me blushing.

The sudden urge of wanting him appeared inside of me again. Before I knew what I was doing, I tiptoed to his level and pressed my lips softly against his.

We stayed like that for just three seconds. But when Natsume slightly moved his mouth, reality hit me and I jumped backwards in utter shock.

I stared at him with my eyes wide in horror, placing my hands in front of my mouth.

Natsume had to take some seconds, too, to realize what was happening. But it didn't take long before he closed his mouth again and changing his expression back into emotionless.

I was mentally screaming at myself for doing such a stupid thing when I didn't even know how he felt about me. I was pretty sure he was about to laugh at me for being so reckless.

"I-I'm sorry!" I blurted out, making sure to keep my distance. Natsume kept his famous expression, though. But then his lips cracked into an amused smirk. The male shook his head in disbelief soon afterwards.

I didn't get a thing of it; he was amused? "W-what is it?"

"You really are an idiot, Mikan." His voice was surprisingly kind, making it sound like he wasn't insulting me at all. I gave him a surprised stare. "You're… you're not mad?"

He shook his head easily, ignoring the raven locks hanging in front of his dark eyes.

I was still being confused. But before I could actually say anything, Natsume pulled me towards him to kiss me again. Without any thought I kissed back.

"I love you, too," he breathed huskily yet gently against my ear and pulled his head back to see my reaction. It didn't surprise him to see me gaping in full shock.

"Y-you do…?" I breathed back, collecting myself. Butterflies were already dancing inside my stomach, making me feel like I was the happiest girl on earth. I smiled brightly and hugged him tightly. "I love you too."

"I already know that." Natsume returned bluntly, not caring about the slight-angry pout I showed him.

He gently pressed his forehead against mine, keeping me close. "Maybe I should thank that bastard," he said in a whisper as though he was a bit embarrassed about it. I nodded once with the same smile and looked up. "I think he would like that."

Natsume only hn'ed, before he closed the distance between us again with a passionate kiss.

* * *

Sam – Gawd, I love you guys so much. When I put up the A/N I never expected people would actually read it and like the things I changed. But I received a lot of nice reviews and a bunch of new people who alerted and favored this story, even alerting and favoring _me_! Really, if I could meet you all in real I would hug you to death. Like, seriously. You all made my day and gave me even more reason to write this story. So yes, again: _thank you so damn much_! *inserts lots of hearts here* ;D

Alright, back to this chapter: Mikan and Natsume finally confessed to each other and are finally together! When I wrote the scene I was really happy. I mean, after all those years, I finally can write a scene where the two share the most beautiful and romantic words of a life time with each other, and kiss! Who wouldn't be happy after that? :3

Even the past of Natsume and Sasuke is finally revealed. ;D Really, you don't know how long I wanted to write that…

I decided to put this story on the first place now and will give it my full attention. I still will write my other stories that are here, but the updates will be a lot slower now. Until I've completed this story, of course. :)

Thank you so much for the fact that you haven't given up on this story and for reading this chapter. Please leave a review and no flames.

Much love,  
Unknown Pain


	12. A Lovely Day

**Written by –** Unknown Pain.  
**Disclaimer –** Disclaimed.

**The Beat of Love**

"_Music is my soul, my life, I can't live without it. Without music, life would be a mistake." _

-Unknown Pain-

* * *

**-Chapter XII – A Lovely Day- **

I silently watched Natsume wipe his sweaty face with his towel. I felt my cheeks already burning as his gaze calmly met mine. The way his hair fell over his eyes made my heart go faster.

It was still a bit hard to believe that we had confessed to each other just less than an hour ago, and I finally could see and call him my "boyfriend".

Thinking about it automatically put a smile on my lips and made me feel all warm and happy inside.

"You're red," he pointed out casually as he brushed the towel softly against the side of his face.

My blush deepened at what he said. "D-don't say that," I returned lowly while turning away from him.

Natsume shrugged nonchalantly and let out a cool "hn" to signal that he didn't really care. He put his towel around his neck and headed towards the exit of the Dancing classroom.

"H-hey, wait!" I quickly called as soon as I realized he wanted to leave, and went after him. "Are you done practicing?"

Natsume nodded curtly.

He kept the door open for me until we were both outside. I followed him but blinked in confusion when he turned to the second building. "Aren't you coming with me to the third building's lounge room?"

He shook his head before facing me. "I want to take a shower first."

"Oh," I immediately felt disappointed and automatically, I bit by bottom lip while lowering my head. "… Alright," I said when I looked up again. I smiled to hide the disappointment; I didn't want him to think I was a possessive girlfriend or something. "Then I guess I'll see you later."

Natsume looked at me blankly for a moment without saying something. He then sighed and ran his fingers through his messy hair. "You're stupid, getting all disappointed over such a small thing," he grumbled lowly under his breath.

I blinked when he suddenly stepped closer and made me look at him by lifting my chin gently. "I'll come right after I'm done showering, okay…?" His voice was set into a rare, gentle and soothing whisper, making my heart beat faster.

He kissed me before I could even respond. It felt like I was floating as Natsume's warmth surrounded me, and without even thinking, I immediately embraced it by gently grabbing his t-shirt and deepening our kiss.

"If you're going to put each other's tongues in your mouths, I swear I'm going to puke."

We quickly parted away from each other as though it'd save us from the embarrassment.

I swallowed as I saw Hotaru standing near the corner of the second building.

Natsume muttered an annoyed "great" underneath his breath.

"H-hey, Hotaru…" I said slowly, not knowing what else I could say to her. I smiled nervously at the way her amethyst eyes shifted between my red face and Natsume's stoic one.

At last, her gaze stopped on me and her thin eyebrows lowered. "Hey." She greeted curtly, her voice not letting us hear any sign of emotion in it.

"Oi, Imai, what are you standing there for?" I widened my eyes in horror upon hearing Koko's voice. "Did something happen or…?" His words trailed off as he saw me and Natsume. Of course, Mochu and Ruka appeared right beside him.

I wanted to crawl into a corner and _die_.

"Dude, where _were_ you?" Mochu asked with his forehead furrowed, and crossed his arms. "We were looking all over for you."

Natsume stayed silent.

"He was spending his time with his girlfriend," Hotaru answered for him.

Natsume narrowed his eyes at her dangerously while at the same time I called her name in protest.

"'Girlfriend'…?" the three males repeated a second later. They blinked their eyes a couple of times in surprise before their gazes turned to me.

I gulped at the way they stared at me in silence and braced myself for whatever they were going to say to me.

Koko's eyebrows lifted, "So that means… you two are dating?" His usual smirk appeared on his lips again. "Is that why you're here? If Hotaru hadn't interrupted you, you'd have gone to Natsume's dorm to have sex, am I— Oi, don't throw your towel at me, Natsume!" He sniffed at it. "Ew! Gross, dude! What the hell did you do with this? This smells like _shit_."

Mochu snickered in amusement as his younger friend threw it on the ground. Koko glared at him briefly but he simply ignored it.

Natsume let out a deep sigh of irritation and decided to leave us.

As Natsume almost reached the door, Mochu smacked Koko on the head.

"Ow! Hey! What was that for?"

"You made him angry, you stupid moron," Mochu said in an angry voice and quickly followed his leader.

"Oh, come on! It was just a joke!" Koko called as he rubbed the back of his head. He walked after him, insulting him a couple of times for hitting his head and ignoring him.

Hotaru shook her head in disbelief. "Bunch of idiots," she muttered under her breath, brushing her fingertips through her short locks.

Ruka blew out some air between his lips and picked up the white towel from the ground. "I guess it'd be best to follow them," he announced. As he passed me, he let me see a small, yet beautiful smile and nodded once.

I blinked in surprise and watched him disappear through the doors of the second building, getting confused. What was that for?

I turned back to Hotaru, not liking the expression she threw at me. "You… Are you mad at me?" I asked carefully.

Hotaru rolled her cold-looking eyes away from me as though I just said something stupid. "I'm disgusted."

"Why?"

Hotaru turned her back to me and started walking towards our building. She let me catch up with her. "I just saw you two sucking each other dry," she said with irritation.

My face immediately turned red again. "D-don't say it like that, please!" I uttered, placing my hands on my burning cheeks.

She rolled her eyes again. "So, you two are dating now?"

A wide smile made its way up to my lips as I nodded. "Yeah… I guess so." I opened the door.

"For real?"

"Uhm… yeah."

"So no more 'I-hate-him-but-I-also-think-I-love-him' crap?" Hotaru glanced at me from her eye corners.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "W-what… No, I guess?"

"Thank _God_," Hotaru sighed in relief.

I shot her a soft glare, "Well, I'm sorry for always troubling you then." Hotaru opened the door to the small-crowded lounge room. "By the way, you're acting as though you had already expected this to happen. Why is that?"

"Because," she returned and turned to me. "Only an idiot would be surprised. It was already obvious you two were interested in each other since day one."

She raised her right eyebrow as I stared at her in surprise. "You're the idiot. Of course," she mumbled lowly just before she headed to the couch and plopped on it, ignoring the two other camp students already sitting there.

I frowned at the insult, walking up to her. "Aren't you happy for me?"

"If you mean 'I'll rip off his balls and feed it to the sharks if he hurts you,' then yes, I am."

I giggled in amusement. Finally, her own lips curled into a soft smile, too. "Just don't let me witness something like that again." Her voice was slightly demanding and her face was back into her usual stoic one.

I nodded with still the same smile pressed on my face. "Alright." I hugged her tightly. "Thank you, Hotaru."

She let out a small sigh, probably finding this and me really troublesome, but still she returned the hug by placing one hand on my back.

* * *

"Are you done…?" Hotaru asked while I dumped my books into my locker. I nodded as soon as I closed its door and faced her with a smile. "Yup!"

"Let's go, then," she said. She made her way to the three sisters, who were waiting patiently for us at the exit.

I wanted to follow her, but I stopped as my phone started to vibrate loudly into my jean pocket. Wondering what it was, I grabbed the object.

A smile made my way onto my lips when I saw that it was a text message from my mother.

Hotaru turned around in the meantime, her thin eyebrow raised questionably. "What are you doing?" she asked me with hints of irritation present in her voice.

"Ah, wait… My mother just texted me; I'll be there in a minute." I responded without looking up at her.

My smile widened when I saw only three words she had put in the text message, _"I MISS YOU!"_ I giggled lightly under my breath at the fact that it was in capital letters.

I realized that it had already been a week and a half since I had spoken to her.

With the same smile I typed that I missed her too and I'd call her after classes were over. Just after I clicked on the "send" button, someone strongly wrapped his arms around me.

I shrieked loudly in shock but calmed down when I saw familiar crimson colored eyes gazing at me.

"Gah, Natsume, you startled me!" I cooed after a deep sigh of relief.

Instead of saying anything, Natsume cupped my chin with his thumb and index finger and gently pecked me on the lips.

"I see you in class," he said almost in a whisper before releasing me again. I smiled and nodded twice. "Alright."

He continued his steps with his thee friends by his side. Ruka was the only one who greeted me with one of his famous smiles. Not fully used to it, it took me a while to smile and greet back.

Chieko, Chika and Chiharu stared at the raven-haired male with shocked eyes. As soon as Natsume noticed, he shot them an annoyed glare back, not knowing why they were staring at him like that.

Their gazes immediately shifted to me when I joined the group and asked if something was wrong.

"What was that?" Chieko asked with one of her orange eyebrows raised, her pink eyes still big. "Did my eyes betray me or did you and Natsume really kiss just now?"

I didn't understand the problem, "Yeah…" I nodded slowly in the meantime. "We did. Why?"

"They're dating," Hotaru explained easily, ignoring some stray locks hanging in front of her cold-looking eyes.

"_What_?" they all exclaimed in unison, gaping at me even more.

I blinked. "You didn't know?"

Chika shook her head quickly. "No. Since when?"

"Since yesterday…" I automatically blushed at the flashbacks of me and him back in the Dancing classroom.

They stared at me blankly as though they needed some time to get it all in their head.

"Well…" Chiharu finally began after a silent moment and pressed her lips into a beautiful smile. "I'm very happy for you, Mikan. You two make a good couple so congratulations!"

Her sisters congratulated me too right after that.

A blush touched my cheeks lightly and I smiled brightly, showing that I was really happy. "Thank you guys,"

"Can we go now…?" Hotaru asked in a deep voice. Before we could actually respond to her, she was already outside.

We quickly followed her.

"Geez, thanks for waiting," I said sarcastically as we finally caught up with her. Hotaru's blunt expression didn't even change when she said, "You're all too slow."

I pouted, insulted.

Chika was the only one of her sisters who reacted, "Whatever," she said through an annoyed sigh, and opened the big door to the Dancing classroom.

It surprised me that all of our classmates were there already. Even Narumi was already standing in front of the sitting crowd.

Chieko, Chiharu and I blushed in embarrassment as everyone turned their attention to us, while Chika scratched the back of her head. Hotaru kept on staring back with her usual stoic expression.

"Ah, you finally decided to show up," Narumi said to break the awkward silence that started to fill the room. He had his usual smile pressed on his lips but his left eyebrow was raised.

"Uhm, yeah… Sorry for being late," Chika responded, slightly sweat dropping.

Narumi's thin eyebrow lowered down and his smile widened. "It's fine. Come; please sit down so we can get started." We quickly did what he said.

"Today we're going to continue practicing our dance for the music competition," our teacher began as soon as he got all the attention again. "And now we're going to start with the Hip-Hop parts of the routine. So make sure you pay attention to the moves I'm going to show you, because this is going to be the hardest part of the routine."

As everyone stayed silent he began to demonstrate some of the moves. After he was done, it was our time to do them.

We all had to dance as a group at first. Because Natsume and I were the leaders, we had to dance in the front, which made me really uncomfortable. Nevertheless, I tried my best to concentrate on the dancing itself and tried to make sure to keep up with all the others. But before I knew it, I tripped over my own feet and collided into Natsume; we both fell on the floor, even knocking some others over as well.

The music stopped immediately and almost all my classmates surrounded us to see if everything was alright.

My boyfriend growled at me in annoyance as soon as our eyes meet. The others who fell as well because of me glared almost the same glare Natsume send me. "Watch where you're going, Polka,"

I stared at him with my eyes wide in shock and felt my cheeks burning out of embarrassment as soon as I saw that everyone had seen my little incident.

"I-I-I'm really sorry!" I uttered and quickly stood up to give Natsume some space to get back on his feet, too.

I eyed two of my other classmates who removed themselves from the floor as well. "I really am," I said to prevent them from thinking I did it on purpose. Luckily, they accepted my apology and sighed, nodding their heads to signal that they weren't mad.

Unfortunately, Natsume still had his crimson eyes _narrowed_ at me.

"Are you all okay?" Narumi asked with a slight worried expression. We all nodded our heads as our answer.

His gentle-looking, amethyst eyes turned to me. "If this is troubling you, I can explain you the moves one more time."

After a moment of silence, I nodded my head slowly, scratching in the meantime my right cheek. "Y-yeah… I think that would be a good idea. Thanks." I really didn't want to screw up again.

I glanced at Natsume who still had an annoyed expression presented on his face; and I really didn't want to make him angry again.

Narumi smiled kindly and nodded his head once. "Alright. Please wait at the side; I'll be right with you." I did what he said and removed myself from the group.

He danced with them only once before he left them to give them their opportunity to practice the whole routine on their own, so he could help me.

Narumi began slowly so it would be easy for me to know exactly what I had to do. When he was done demonstrating the first beginning dance moves, it was time to copy him.

"You have to spread your legs more," the blonde teacher told me as soon as he saw my flaw. "That way it'll not only look tight and strong, you will stand strong too."

"Ah… Like this?"

Narumi nodded and smiled at what I showed him. "Perfect."

We continued this for a couple of times, before going over to the other parts, which were a bit more difficult.

I groaned in disappointment when I just couldn't get some things right. But Narumi was still being calm, smiling at me brightly as though he really didn't care if I was screwing up. "Don't worry about it. We've still got enough time to practice. And I'll make sure you can do this without any problems."

I smiled back and nodded twice in relief and appreciation. "Thank you so much."

He chuckled. "No problem!"

If only all my teachers were like him.

Narumi walked to the CD player and turned it off. He clapped in his hands to make sure he got all the attention he wanted. "Alright, everyone, go stand by your partner, please."

Slowly but surely everyone moved around to get to their partner. Chieko was the only one who stood still, looking hastily around her to find Sasuke.

But just when she was about to raise her hand and call Narumi, he appeared behind her and tapped her lightly with his index finger on her shoulder. She immediately turned around and as soon as she saw that it was her partner, she greeted him with a tight hug.

I, myself, walked silently to Natsume who had his expression still dark; he was still annoyed. It made me want to go to him even _less_.

It wasn't any surprise that he didn't say anything when I stood next to him.

"With this part you have to dance with your partner," Narumi said and eyed one of his students. "Can you demonstrate it with me, please?" She nodded easily and walked up to him.

After the demonstration was over, the blonde adult focused on me and Natsume, calling us over to the right side of the dance room.

"Because you two are the leaders, you'll have to do more," our teacher explained

I raised my eyebrows. "More?" I repeated in a slightly higher voice.

Narumi smiled, having heard my uncertainties in my voice, and nodded soon afterwards. "It's not going to be too difficult, so don't worry. Besides, you're with Natsume." His bright eyes turned over to the said male, who just went nonchalantly with his fingers through his messy locks.

"Come, let me show you what you two have to do," Narumi reached his hand out of me. Without hesitation, I took it.

It looked like Natsume wasn't accepting it: his eyes narrowed when Narumi had pulled me close to him. He didn't seem to notice it, though, because he was too busy explaining exactly what we had to do.

Some moments later, when Narumi lifted me, Natsume's face screamed terrible – I repeat, _terrible_ things.

I only felt worse because of it, because I thought I did something wrong.

After watching us go through the dance moves he had demonstrated, the blonde adult complimented us and left us alone so we could practice on further.

Natsume made sure his glare was stabbing Narumi's back.

"Hey… A-are you still mad at me…?" I dared to ask the male as I turned to him again.

Natsume's short, left eyebrow raised questionably and only faced me; his face was still shining with dark annoyance. "What?"

"Are you mad at me?" I repeated myself, with this time my own eyebrows raised as well. "You know…because I bumped into you?"

Natsume's eyebrow lowered.

"Because if so, I'm… I'm really sorry!" I began again. "I really didn't mean to and I hope you're not hurt or anything? I'm really, _really_ sorry." The words just rolled out of my mouth and I couldn't stop them from coming out; I just hated the fact that Natsume was so angry at me.

"Oi, calm down," the male returned as he got the chance. "I'm not mad."

I blinked twice. "You aren't…?"

He shook his head curtly.

I felt relieved and smiled immediately, but it disappeared soon when I asked him, "Then why were you glaring at me like that?"

"I was just annoyed."

"You were annoyed…? But then what was that look when I was dancing with Narumi?" I raised my eyebrows. "It looked like you were about to explode!"

Natsume turned away as though he was embarrassed, and ruffled his hair so that his locks would only cover more of his crimson eyes. "I just didn't…" He paused and faced forward with a small frown. "Like what I saw..."

"Oh," I let out softly. I looked at him for a moment in silence, before I realized something, "Wait," I titled my head to the right so I could see a bit more of his face. "So… Does that mean that you were _jealous_?"

He immediately shot me an annoyed glare. "No, I wasn't." But I already started to smirk, proud that I had caught him, and yet happy to know that he loved me so much.

"Yes, you were," I returned matter-of-factly and giggled. "That's really cute, Natsume."

The male tightened his jaw and started to growl deep inside his throat, not wanting to accept the fact that I was actually winning this.

Then, all of a sudden, he grabbed my wrist and in less than a second, I felt small tuffs of his breath tickling my lips.

"Why should I be jealous when you're already mine, anyway?" The way his voice sounded paralyzed me.

Natsume smirked victoriously at it and quickly caught my lips with his own. Though surprised, I immediately responded, letting my heartbeat go faster with every movement he made.

"Ugh, get a room or something,"

Natsume's eyes narrowed right away when he heard the infamous voice of…Sasuke. He let me go and while I turned around to face him and Chieko, Natsume decided to throw a dark glare at the him for disturbing us.

"H-h-hey you guys!" I greeted the two happily, trying to stop blushing in embarrassment. Luckily for me, Sasuke just ignored me and Chieko smiled back at me like nothing had happened.

Not a second after that, Narumi turned off the music and said that we could have a ten minute break. Everyone, relieved, sat down on the floor or sat against the wall, getting some rest while talking to their friends.

Chiharu, Chika, Mochu, Ruka, Hotaru and Koko went to us as soon as they found us. We greeted each other and decided to sit against the wall.

"Haa, I'm _really_ tired," Chiharu began through a sigh, right after she had her back pressed against the wall.

Chieko and Koko nodded their heads at the same time in agreement. "I think we all are," Chieko said with a small smile and passed her right hand through her long, orange locks.

"Thank God class is over about in about a half hour." Koko said, who had decided to lean against the wall for support instead of sitting, pressing his right foot against it so he'd get a cool posture.

"You know," I started and touched Natsume's left arm softly to get his attention. "This is the right moment to thank Sasuke."

His forehead was already put into a frown of protest.

"Come on," I continued. "We wouldn't be dating if he didn't send me to you that day." I placed a small kiss on his cheek to encourage him more. "And you said you would do it."

Natsume growled deep inside of his throat, hesitating of course.

Sasuke, who sat not far away from him, had heard everything and rolled his blood-red eyes.

Chika was already chuckling in amusement. She had her sky-blue eyes turned to him. "Come, Sasuke. Face Natsume properly or else he _can't_ thank you."

"_Shut up_!" both males shouted in unison, making not only Chika laugh but also the others of our small group.

Hotaru, who sat next to me, leaned a bit forward to see it. "This is going to be interesting," she said in her usual emotionless tone, but her amethyst-colored eyes were twinkling out of amusement.

Then there was a sudden silence between all of us. Everyone had their attention on Sasuke and Natsume, waiting for what would happen.

We all could see that they were feeling uncomfortable, making them annoyed as well.

"This… is awkward," Sasuke said in a deep voice, scratching the back of his head with a frown.

Natsume slowly opened his mouth and just when we all thought he was going to say those two words we all wanted to hear, he said, "I'm going to puke."

Chika, Ruka, Hotaru and Koko rolled their eyes away while the rest of us let out a deep sigh.

Hotaru pressed her back against the wall again. "I should've expected that,"

I nodded twice in agreement.

I blinked my eyes in surprise when the two suddenly glanced unnoticeably at each other. They turned away from each other soon, with both their lips curled up. I smiled; good enough for me.

* * *

"_Hello?"_

"Hey, Mom," I returned; I immediately noticing how bright her voice sounded compared to the other day when I called her.

"_Hey, Mikan!"_ she directly exclaimed, giving me a smile on my lips. _"How are you doing?" _

"I'm fine, thanks. You?"

"_Much,__ much better." _

Relieved, I leaned against the wall for support. "That's great! I was really worried, you know?"

"_I apologize. I still need to get some rest, though, but everything will be fine."_ She told me with the same enthusiastic voice. _"How's camp going? The camp year is almost over, right?"_

I nodded as though she could see it. "Yeah, it is. Everything is fine. We're busy with finals and things for the competition being held on the last day, so I'm quite busy. That's also the reason why I can't contact you as often as I'd like, sorry."

"_Oh, no, don't apologize! I completely understand!" _

I chuckled at that and stayed silent for a while, "Uhm, Mom…?"

"_Hmm?"_ I could already imagine the way she raised her eyebrows in a questionable yet curious manner, like she always did.

I blushed at what I was about to tell her, "I'm… dating someone." There was a small moment of silence before my mother reacted with a cheerful, _"That's wonderful! Who's the lucky guy?"_

I giggled, relieved at the way she reacted. "Natsume Hyuuga. He's my classmate." I put a lock behind my left ear.

"_When will I meet him?"_

"Soon enough, I guess," I turned over to the male I was talking about; he peeked through the door of the third building's lounge room. His short eyebrows were furrowed impatiently.

I gave him a nod to signal that I'd be right there. "But, I've got to go. I'll talk to you later, okay?" Hearing that, Natsume disappeared again.

"_Alright! Take __care, __and say 'hi' to your boyfriend for me!" _

"I will. Bye!" With that, we both hung up.

After I put my phone back into my pocket, I made my way to the small-crowded lounge room; only Natsume and his gang, Hotaru, the three Mori's, and a couple of other camp students were there.

The room was filled with the music Chieko made with her light brown guitar. Everyone listened closely to it, enjoying every second of it.

I walked silently to Natsume and sat down on his lap. "My Mom said 'hi'," I whispered in his ear, not wanting to disturb Chieko.

Natsume's short brow raised questionably and his eyes turned to mine. Finally understanding what I said, he nodded once.

"Play _Stay the Night_ by James Blunt!" Chika said excitedly to her older sister.

Chieko halted her actions and looked at her.

Chiharu agreed immediately, "Good idea! Oh and we're all going to sing with it, right guys?" She looked around her. Her smile widened when almost everyone agreed with her idea. Only Mochu, Koko and Natsume protested by groaning or just bluntly saying "no".

"Why don't we let this girl here sing," Koko said in a mischievous tone. I widened my eyes in shock when his eyes were on me.

"W-what…? M-me?" I reacted in a high voice.

"That's actually a great idea," Chika said and nodded once at the sandy-haired male, who snorted proudly.

"N-no, it isn't!" I directly returned.

"No, Chika is right," Chiharu began with her famous energetic smile glued on her pink lips. She turned to me. "I have never heard you sing before, Mikan. So this is a good opportunity to let us hear your beautiful voice." She giggled afterwards.

I swallowed nervously and shook my head slowly. "I… don't—"

"What's the matter?" Chieko titled her head a bit to the right with her thin, orange eyebrow raised questionably. "You don't know the lyrics of the song?"

"She's just nervous," Hotaru answered for me.

I frowned at her; it looked like I was on my own.

Chika chuckled in amusement. "Really cute," She flipped her brown hair over her left shoulder. "But don't be. We won't laugh; right guys?" Everyone immediately shook their heads, some even saying, "Nope, we won't," to convince me.

"It depends if she can sing or not," Natsume said bluntly. I threw him a glare which made him only smirk in amusement.

"Come on, Mikan," Chieko encouraged me. Soon all the others in the lounge room joined her.

"A-alright, fine!" I said with a small blush of embarrassment touching my cheeks. "But I'm only going to do the verses. You have to sing with me with the chorus."

"Boo!" Koko yelled.

I send him an annoyed glare which he easily ignored.

"Alright," Chieko said easily, smiling sweetly. "Deal."

I let out a small sigh of relief and nodded happily.

She started to play the intro and as soon as the first verse came, I started to sing the lyrics, _"It's 72 degrees, zero chance of rain. It's been a perfect day,"_ I sang softly, still being really nervous and scared everyone would laugh at me any second. But instead of that, they only looked at me, moving their heads with the rhythm and silently enjoyed it.

Getting more courage, I started to sing the next lyrics louder. When the chorus came and everyone started to sing with me, I was really enjoying myself.

Natsume was the only one who didn't sing with us. Instead he had pressed his chin on my shoulder and listened.

When the song was over, we all started to cheer and some of us even started to clap.

"Seriously, you have to let everyone hear your voice more!" Chiharu said excitedly with a gentle smile. "You've got a beautiful voice!"

I blushed in embarrassment as everyone agreed with what she said. I laughed and scratched the back of my head a little. "T-thank you."

After we talked for a little bit more and did our own thing, everyone left to see a performance of a camp student that began at eight o'clock.

"Are you coming too?" Ruka asked me and Natsume as he stood in the doorway. Without thinking twice, the male shook his head.

"You, Mikan?" Chieko asked with her eyebrows slightly raised.

"Su—!" Natsume suddenly tightened his grip around me, pressing me more against him. Confused at his actions, I turned around.

Natsume secretly shook his head, as though saying he didn't want me to go with them.

"Uhm, I… pass," I said slowly, still a bit unsure what he exactly wanted. I faced the others again with a smile so nobody would think anything of it.

"Oh, alright, then," Chieko replied as all of our friends left the room. "See you tomorrow!"

"Bye!" I returned.

As soon as the door closed with a soft thud, I turned back to Natsume. "What's wrong…?"

"Nothing."

"Then why didn't you want me to go with them?"

"Is it wrong to want some alone time with you?" he questioned me back in a cool, nonchalant voice and pressed his lips softly against my neck.

I blushed at his actions. "N-no…"

Natsume's lips cracked into one of his infamous smirks. He made me look at him, and kissed me gently on the lips. I responded without hesitation.

Natsume placed his left hand on my waist and slowly moved it to my upper leg, and went more and more down. I immediately stopped him as soon as I realized what he wanted to do.

"Wha-what do you think you're _doing_?" I asked sternly, blushing furiously.

Natsume lowered his eyebrows to get a dry expression. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Y-you can't— You can't do that."

His raised an eyebrow. "Why not?" His voice had some hints of disappointment in it.

I shook my head in disbelief and took a deep breath, hoping my heart would calm down already. "Because we're in a lounge room! S-someone might come in! And… besides, I don't want to,"

Natsume sighed deeply, obviously irritated, and ran his left hand through his dark locks. "Fine. What do you wanna do then?"

I removed myself from his lap and sat down beside him on the couch. "Uhm, let's talk?"

"About what?"

"Uhmm," I paused, tapping my chin thoughtfully. "Are your parents coming to the final performance?" Natsume held his shoulders up nonchalantly. "Don't know."

I brushed some locks away from my eyes. "I wonder if my mother will come, too."

"Ask her," Natsume suggested easily.

"Ah, yeah… Good idea." I immediately grabbed my phone and texted her about it. Not a moment later I got an excited message back with, _"I wouldn't miss it __for__ the world!"_ Her words made me smile right away.

"What did she say?" the male asked.

"She said she wouldn't miss it for the world," I answered with the same smile on my lips.

I eyed him for a small moment before resting my head on his shoulder. "I can't wait to see her again." I sighed softly.

"I think we're all like that," Natsume replied, his voice low but gentle.

The silence appeared between us, but it felt nice and calm.

I pictured the last day of the camp, where I'd see my mother again, and where I'd have to say goodbye to all of my friends. I furrowed my eyebrows; which also meant I had to say goodbye to Natsume…

"I'll miss you," I said without thinking, my voice soft. I suddenly felt sad; what if we would never see each other again?

Natsume didn't respond to what I said. I blinked in confusion and wondered if he had heard me or if something was wrong.

I lifted my head from my shoulder so I could look at him. "Natsume?" He had his head slightly lowered down. "What's wr—?" Before I could finish my sentence, he grabbed my arm and pulled me against him.

My eyes widened when his strong arms embraced me gently yet strongly. I didn't understand what suddenly got into him, "H-hey. What's wrong?" I asked again and tried to face him, but it seemed impossible.

"So noisy," he breathed onto my neck and let his head rest on my shoulder. "Stay silent for a while."

I frowned at the word "noisy" and wanted to continue, until I realized why and what he tried to say: he'll miss me too.

I smiled lightly and gently placed my arms around his neck to return the hug.

* * *

Sam – First of all, I want to apologize for the lack of details in the dancing scene. I'm Dutch and English is my second language, so I'm always killing myself if it comes to these kind of things. I tried to make the best out of it so I still hope you enjoyed it. Now you might be asking, "But what are you going to do if you're writing the chapter of the last performance?" Well, I've got an _amazing_ beta-reader who is kind enough to help me write it! ;D

I also had a bit trouble with the last scene, where Mikan is going to sing. I just didn't know what to do, how to write it, how to make it interesting, blablabla. I found it unnecessary to put in all the lyrics, therefore I had decided to put in a small part of it to give you all a good picture of the moment. At that time, when I was about to write the scene, I was listening to **Stay the Night** by **James Blunt**. xD

Oh and guys, guys! I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and an amazing Happy New Year!

I hope you all liked this chapter. Thank you for reading, please review, no flames, and see you in the year 2013! :)

Much love,  
Unknown Pain.


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